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PRINCIPLES OF 
SECONDARY EDUCATION 

BY „ii./_ 

ALEXANDER INGLIS '^"^'? 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



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COPYRIGHT, I91S, BY ALEXANDER INGLIS 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



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CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 

FEB 18 1918 
©GI,A481731 



PREFACE 

In this book the author has attempted to make a sys- 
tematic analysis of the factors and principles involved in a 
constructive theory of secondary education. The theory 
herein developed is the outgrowth of the writer's experience 
in secondary-school teaching and administration, together 
with his experience as a college instructor in the theory and 
practice of secondary education. The present volume pre- 
sents the content and method employed in a course of the 
Principles of Secondary Education at Harvard University. 
After use in manuscript form for several years, the book is 
now published in the hope that it may prove of some value 
to teachers, administrators, and other students of education. 

Three factors must always determine the form which 
secondary education should assume: (a) the nature of the 
pupils to be educated; (6) the character of the social or- 
ganization and of social ideals; (c) the means and materials 
available for educational purposes. Accordingly this volume 
is divided into three parts. Part I is devoted to a consider- 
ation of the raw material with which secondary education 
deals, i.e., boys and girls approximately twelve to eighteen 
years of age. Part II is devoted to a consideration of the 
secondary school as a social institution — its character, 
place, and function. Part III is devoted to a consideration 
of the means and materials wherewith the aims of secondary 
education can be achieved. Throughout it has beeji the 
endeavor of the author to coordinate and correlate the 
various portions of the book in such a way as to develop 
a theory of secondary education in which the several ele- 
ments are organically related and mutually consistent. For 



vi PREFACE 

that reason each succeeding chapter or topic must be con- 
sidered in its relation to the principles formulated or the 
factors treated in preceding sections. The complex inter- 
relations of secondary education preclude the adequate con- 
sideration of any single phase in isolation. 

In the construction of a book on the principles of second- 
ary education one of two methods may be employed. A 
number of speciahsts may collaborate in the production 
of a book which consists of several more or less isolated 
treatises on various separate phases of secondary education. 
Such a method has many merits, but precludes the develop- 
ment of a consistently constructive theory. On the other 
hand, when a single individual attempts to write a book 
covering a field as broad as that of secondary education, 
there are always two possible dangers : either the limitations 
of the individual may lead to superficial treatment and error, 
or unsupported personal opinion and bias may dominate. 
The first of these dangers is minimized when the writer 
refrains from attempting to deal with the details of teach- 
ing appropriate to the various studies of the secondary- 
school program and confines this attention to more funda- 
mental principles. In this book the author deals with special 
studies only in connection with the broader matters of aims 
and values, together with the larger elements of method 
necessarily involved. A later volume in this series will deal 
with the principles of teaching in the secondary school and 
several volumes will deal with methods of teaching special 
subjects or groups of subjects. 

Bias and personal opinion the author has attempted to 
minimize in three ways: first, by supporting important 
statements on disputed points by reference to the opinions 
of specialists and to the results of impersonal investigation; 
secondly, by presenting directly the findings or theories of 
specialists and limiting his personal judgment to their 



PREFACE vii 

evaluation in synthesis; thirdly, by securing the direct criti- 
cism of specialists and utilizing their judgments in the prep- 
aration of the book. Practically every chapter of the book 
has been examined and criticized by two or more specialists 
in the field treated in that chapter. In this way the author 
has hoped to safeguard himself and his readers from the 
errors of purely personal opinion and bias. 

The mere listing of the names of those men and women 
who have assisted in the preparation of this volume would 
take more space than is here available. The author takes 
this opportunity to express to those persons collectively his 
deep appreciation of their assistance. Here also he wishes to 
acknowledge the courtesy of publishers and authors who 
have permitted the use of quotations for the clearer pres- 
entation of typical opinions on important points. 

Alexander Inglis, 



CONTENTS 



PART L THE PUPILS 

CHAPTER I. The Secondary-School Pupil: Physical 

Traits . ' 3 

1. Physical traits as basic data. 2. The chronological ages 
of pupils. 3. The growth of children in height and weight. 
4. The growth of organs and parts of the body. 5, Physical de- 
velopment in relation to health. 6. The physiological phenom- 
ena of adolescence. 7. Some implications for secondary edu- 
cation. 8. The distribution of pupils according to puberty. >- 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER n. The Secondary-School Pupil: Mental 

Traits 34 

9. Secondary education and the development of mental traits. 
10. The development of mental traits with age. 11. Theories of 
the development of mental traits. 12. The theory of serial de- 
velopment. 13. The theory of concomitant development. 14. An 
evaluation of the theories of development. 15. Implications for 
j secondary education. 16. Theories of the influence of adoles- 
cence. 17. The theory of saltatory development. 18. The theory 
of gradual development. 19. Evaluation of the two theories. 
20. Implications for secondary education. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER ni. The Secondary-School Pupil: Individ- 
ual Differences 74 

21. Importance of recognizing individual differences. 22. The 
distribution of individual differences. 23. The interpretation of 
measures. 24. The causes of individual differences. 25. Com- 
mon errors in interpreting differences. 26. Individual differences 
due to biological heredity. 27. Individual differences due to so- 
cial heredity. 28, Individual differences due to environment. 
29. Individual differences in interests, etc. 30. Individual differ- 
ences due to sex. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV. The Secondary-School Population: Its 

Chakacter and Classification . .118 

31. Some illustrative figures. 32. The distribution of pupils by 
schools. 33. The distribution of pupils by grades. 34. Retarda- 
tion and acceleration. 35. The elimination of pupUs by grades. 
36. The elimination of pupils by age. 37. Elimination and home 
conditions. 38. Elimination, early intention, and early promise. 
39. The lure of the out-of -school world. 40. Expectancy of stay 
in the secondary school. 41. The classification of secondary- 
school pupils. 42. Pupils completing the com-se. 43. The dis- 
tribution of secondary-school graduates. 44. Pupils destined not 
to complete the course. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 



PART n. THE INSTITUTION AND ITS PURPOSE 

CHAPTER V. The Development op Secondary Edu- 
cation IN America 161 

45. Three principal periods of development. 46. The Latin 
grammar school of England. 47. The beginning of secondary 
education in America. 48. The Public Latin School of Boston. 
49. The Massachusetts Bay Colony law of 1647. 50. Further 
legal provision in Massachusetts. 51. Legal provision in other 
colonies. 52. The Latin school in New England and elsewhere. 
53. The origin of the academy in America. 54. The Franklin 
Academy in Philadelphia. 55. The academy in Massachusetts. 
56. The academy movement in other states. 57. The control and 
support of the academy. 58. The curriculum or the academy. 
59. Secondary education for girls in the academy. 60. Effect of 
the academy movement. 61. Secondary education in the early 
nineteenth century. 62. The English Classical (High) School 
of Boston. 63. The Girls' High School of Boston. 64. The Massa- 
chusetts law of 1827. 65. The public high school in Massachusetts. 
66. The high-school movement in the United States. 67. The 
public high school and the academy. 68. State systems of sec- 
ondary education. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER VI. Secondary Education IN Other Countries 203 

69. The comparative study of secondary education. 70. Pur- 
view of secondary education in other countries. 71. The organi- 
zation of school systems in Prussia. 72. The place of "higher 
schools" in Prussian education. 73. Higher schools for boys in 



CONTENTS xi 

Prussia. 74. "Reform schools" in Germany. 75. Higher schools 
for girls in Prussia. 76. Statistics of higher schools in Germany. 
77. "Intermediate schools," etc., in Germany. 78. Teachers in 
Prussian higher schools for boys. 79. Higher schools and the social 
organization. 80. Secondary education in Germany and America. 
81. The system of education in France. 82. Types of "second- 
ary schools " for boys in France. 83. Other forms of secondary 
education in France. 84. "Secondary" education of girls in 
France. 85. Statisticsof "secondary" schools in France. 86. The 
"secondary school " teacher in France. 87. Secondary education 
and the social organization in France. 88. Secondary education 
in France and America. 89. Organization of secondary education 
in England. 90. The "Great Public Schools" of England. 
91. Other endowed and private secondary schools. 92. The old 
municipal "board" secondary schools. 93. "Grant-list" and 
"efficient" secondary schools. 94. The curricula of English sec- 
ondary schools. 95. The secondary education of girls in Eng- 
land. 96. Secondary schools and other departments of education. 
97. Secondary schools and the social organization in England. 
Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER Vn. Secondary Education in Relation to 

Elementary Education .... 261 

98. Factors involved in making distinctions. 99. Distinctions 
based on chronological age. 100. Distinctions based on develop- 
ment. 101. Distinctions based on social factors. 102. Distinc- 
tions based on studies. 103. The fallacy of sharp distinctions. 
104. Historical development. 105. The development of articu- 
lation in America. 106. Practice in foreign countries. 107. The 
eight-four system. 108. The age of pupils transferred. 109. The 
pedagogical age of pupils transferred. 110. Evidences of defects 
in articulation. 111. Retardation and elimination as evidence. 
112. Instruction in later elementary-school grades. 113. Further 
objections to present conditions. 114. Psychological considera- 
tions. 115. Social and economic principles involved. 116. Ad- 
ministrative factors involved. 117. The six-grade course of second- 
ary education. 118. The junior high-school movement. 119. The 
purposes of the junior high-school. 120. Difficulties to be met. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER Vlil. Secondary Education in Relation to 

Higher Education 303 

121. Early relations. 122. The Latin grammar school and the 
college. 123. The early academy and the college. 124. The public 



adi CONTENTS 

high school and the college. 125. The rise of public state univer- 
sities. 126. The secondary school and the normal school. 127. 
The overlapping of secondary school and college. 128. High-school 
pupils entering higher institutions. 129. Early requirements and 
changes. 130. The amount of preparation required. 131. "Pre- 
scribed," "accepted," and "elective" subjects. 132. The dis- 
tribution of prescribed units. 133. Recommendations of the 
Committee on Articulation. 134. Examination and certificating 
systems. 135. Examination methods in practice. 136. Advan- 
tages and disadvantages of examinations. 137. The certificating 
or accrediting system. 138. The advantages and disadvantages 
of the accrediting system. 139. Methods of administering the 
accrediting system. ' 
Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER IX. Social Principles determining Second- 
ary Education 340 

140. Some underlying assumptions. 141. Secondary educa- 
tion as a social institution. 142. Social ideals and social organi- 
zation. 143. Social evolution and educational adjustment. 
144. Social integration and differentiation. 145. Changes in other 
social institutions. 146. Changes in the home and family life. 
147. Changes in community life. 148. Changes in the Church 
and religion. 149. Changes in the vocation. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER X. The. Aims and Functions of Secondary 

Education ........ 367 

150. The aims of secondary education: their basis. 151. Three 
fundamental aims of secondary education. 152. The social- 
civic aim. 153. The economic-vocational aim. 154. The individ- 
ualistic-avocational aim. 155. The interrelation of the three 
aims. 156. Aims based on traits involved. 157. The functions of 
secondary education. 158. The adjustive or adaptive function. 
159. The integrating function. 160. The differentiating func- 
tion. 161. The propaedeutic function. 162. The selective func- 
tion. 163. The diagnostic and directive function. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 



CONTENTS xiii 

PART ni. THE MEANS AND MATERIALS OF 

SECONDARY EDUCATION 

t 

CHAPTER XI. The Program of Studies — Criteria 
OF Subject Values: Analysis of the 
Program 387 

164. Subject values determined by aims and functions. 
165. Direct values. 166. The transfer of improved efficiency. 
167. Is transfer or spread a reality? 168. What is the mode of 
transfer or spread? 169. Transfer or spread dependent on dis- 
sociation. 170. Factors which foster and facilitate dissociation. 
171. The above principles illustrated. 172. An answer to 
problem 2. 173. Problem 3: What is the extent of transfer? 
174. The results of experimental investigations. 175. Impli- 
cations of psychological theory. 176. Problem 4: The trans- 
fer values of studies. 177. The evolution of the program in 
America. 178. The relative prominence of various subjects. 
179. The necessity of selection. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER Xn. The Place of English in the Program 

OF Studies . . . . . . . 420 

180. The historic dominance of linguistic and literary studies. 
181. The present status of English in the program. 182. English 
and the aims of secondary education. 183. The aims of language 
and of literature distinguished. 184. The relation d language to 
thought. 185. The aims and values of the study of language. 
186. Language as an intellectual instrument. 187. The dominant 
purposes of language studies. 188. Limitations of the study of 
the mother tongue. 189. Literature and the social-civic aim of 
education. 190. Literature and the economic-vocational aim. 
191. Literature and the individualistic-a vocational aim. 192. Cri- 
ticism of English study as now organized. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER Xni. The Place of Foreign Languages 

IN THE Program of Studies . . 447 
193. Historical development in America. 194. Present status. 
195. Preliminary analysis of aims and values. 196. Values for 
social intercourse. 197. Values for commercial purposes. 198. 
Values for instrumental purposes. 199. Values for social-cultural 
purposes. 200. Summary and correlation of direct values. 
201. Foreign-languagestudy and "general discipline." 202. Val- 
ues for language-thought relations. 203. The mother tongue and 



xiv CONTENTS 

foreign languages. 204. The relative values of foreign languages. 
205. The place of foreign languages. 
Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XIV. The Place of Mathematics in the 

Program of Studies .... 481 

206. Historical development of the study of mathematics. 
207. Present status of mathematics instruction. 208. Preliminary 
analysis of aims and values. 209. Mathematics in the affairs of 
everyday life. 210. Mathematics in various vocations. 211. The 
propaedeutic values of mathematics. 212. Direct values limited 
and contingent. 213. Indirect values claimed: number and space 
concepts. 214. Mathematics and the transfer of improved effi- 
ciency. 215. Characteristics claimed to favor transfer values. 
216. Rugg's experiment. 217. Criticism of mathematics as now 
organized. 218. The order and position of mathematical studies. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XV. The Place of the Natural Sciences 

IN the Program of Studies . . 506 

219. Historical development. 220. Present status. 221. Values 
claimed for the natural sciences. 222. Spencer's fallacies perpetu- 
ated. 223. Preliminary analysis of the values claimed. 224. Natu- 
ral science in the affairs of everyday life. 225. Direct values for 
vocations. 226. Propaedeutic values. 227. Conceptual values 
claimed. 228. Transfer values claimed. 229. The values and aims 
of "general science." 230. The aims and values of natural science 
instruction. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XVI. The Place of Social Sciences in the 

Program of Studies .... 534 

231. Historical position in the program. 232. Present status. 
233. Character and ultimate aims. 234. Values of the study of 
history. 235. Direct social-civic values. 236. Direct vocational 
values. 237. Direct avocational values. 238. Direct propaedeutic 
values. 239. Conceptual values claimed. 240. Transfer values 
claimed. 241. Factors conditioning the values of history. 242. 
Meaning and scope of civics. 243. The aims and values of civics. 
244. The scope and function of "community civics." 245. Eco- 
nomics as a study in the program. 246. The study of " Problems 
of American Democracy." 247. Criticism of social studies as now 
organized. 

Problems for further consideration — Selected references. 



PRINCIPLES OF 
SECONDAEY EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 

THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL PUPIL: PHYSICAL TRAITS 

I. Physical traits as basic data. All educational theory 
and practice must be determined primarily by the natm*e of 
the individuals to be educated. Reduced to its lowest terms 
education is the process of producing, directing, and prevent- 
ing changes in human beings. For the intelligent production, 
direction, and prevention of such changes a knowledge of 
the raw material with which education deals is a funda- 
mental necessity, and hence the first problem of educational 
theory and practice in any department is concerned with 
the nature of those to be educated. It is, perhaps, a plati- 
tude to say that the physical and physiological traits of the 
individual primarily condition his total nature. As is the 
case with many general truths, the readiness with which one 
accepts such a statement sometimes tends to interfere with 
a full appreciation of its significance and to leave one con- 
tent with the acceptance of the generahzation. The result- 
ing tendency to minimize the importance of a knowledge 
of the physical and physiological traits of the educand is 
furthered by recognition of the fact that such traits are 
amenable to control through education to a limited degree 
only and that the demands of modern life emphasize atten- 
tion to the phenomena of mental traits. 

Secondary education, as any other department of educa- 
tion, demands for initial consideration the physical and 



4 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

physiological traits of boys and girls, special interest center- 
ing on those traits and their development in boys and girls 
of ages approximately twelve to eighteen. Out of the char- 
acter of those traits and their development arise numerous 
important problems for secondary education, some of gen- 
eral and indirect importance, others of very specific and 
direct bearing. The present chapter, therefore, is concerned 
with the nature of physical or physiological traits in boys 
and girls, their development, and their bearing on the the- 
ory and practice of secondary education. 

Before approaching the material presented in this chapter 
the reader should be warned that much remains to be accom- 
plished in the measurement of physical and physiological 
traits and that even the best material available is open to 
severe criticism. In particular one must be careful not to 
infer too much from averages which can hold true for large 
groups only and cannot be applied safely to individuals or 
sm^U groups because of the great variability found. Like- 
wise one should be on guard against unqualified acceptance 
of the results of one or a few limited investigations. Finally, 
one must be aware of the danger of inferring the nature of 
development *'in general," or the nature of the development 
of all organs and parts of the body, from the nature of the 
development of one or more specific parts or organs. 

Two errors have been so common in the measurement of 
physical and physiological traits that they merit special 
mention. One of those errors is the practice of attempting 
to determine norms of development by measuring different 
groups of children at various ages, instead of measuring the 
growth of the same children. The second error is that of 
failing to recognize properly the importance of variability 
and of overemphasizing the importance of averages in the 
measurement of any given trait. Recent investigations have 
tended to avoid these errors. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



5 



2. The chronological ages of pupils. Data concerning 
physical traits and their development are best understood 
when referred to terms of maturity or "age." Ordinarily 
maturity or age is expressed in chronological terms — years, 
months, and days — and "norms" for physical and mental 
traits are commonly expressed by the layman and educator 
in such terms. However, chronological age is a very unsatis- 
factory measure of maturity and is likely to be misleading. 

The organization of the American school system at present 
postulates that the age and grade distribution of pupils will 
conform roughly to the following standard: 



Table I 

Elementary School 
Grade: ...1234 5 6 7 8 

Age: 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 



Secondary School 
I II III IV 

14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 



That the actual situ-ation is far from this age-grade distri- 
bution may be seen from the following typical example: 

Table H. Age-Grade Distribution of Pupils in the 
Paterson (N.J.) Schools, 1912 















Grades 










Age 


























1 


2 


3 


i 


5 


6 


7 


8 


/ 


// 


III 


IV 


Total 


4 


3i 












- 


.■ 










39 


6 


m 


I ] 


1 . 




















723 


6 15 


m 


) 3( 


)7 


6 ... 


















1622 


7 ( 


m 


i 9( 


35 3( 


54 15 


1 
















1973 


8 


\.54 


t 5^ 


J4 9^ 


13 270 


20 


1 














1972 


9 


5. 


> 2] 


19 6^ 


14 680 


280 


17 














1895 


10 


2f 


J 1( 


)2 2£ 


)4 602 


617 


254 


5 












1897 


11 


It 


[ 1 


J7 If 


57 364 


502 


618 


172 


28 


2 








1773 


12 


( 


) I 


»2 ( 


51 210 


356 


560 


489 


152 


25 








1884 


13 




5 


3 t 


J6 93 


193 


323 


523 


400 


151 


19 


1 




1757 


14 






3 


8 26 


60 


124 


234 


366 


286 


88 


17 




1214 


15 








2 


8 


19 


74 


182 


156 


159 


81 


10 


691 


16 










3 


5 


8 


29 


47 


96 


116 


60 


364 


17 








1 






1 


1 


10 


38 


87 


95 


233 


18 


















3 


10 


26 


44 


83 


19 


















1 


1 


4 


14 


20 


20 






















3 


6 


9 


Over 20 






















3 


3 


6 


Total 2S 


}7{ 


) 23$ 


»3 25( 


)3 2263 


2040 


1821 


1506 


1158 


681 


411 


338 


232 


18155 



6 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

From such a table as this a number of important facts 
regarding the chronological age of secondary-school pupils 
are evident. It is probable that in our schools as at present 
administered one will not find as many as one half of the 
pupils in any grade belonging to any single age group. Thus 
in the above table the largest age group in the eighth grade 
is the group of thirteen-year-old pupils who form 34.6 per 
cent of the entire grade group. In the first year of the high 
school the fourteen-year-old pupils constitute 42.0 per cent 
of the entire grade group. In the second year of the high 
school the fifteen-year-old pupils constitute 38.7 per cent 
of the entire grade group. In the third year of the high 
school the sixteen-year-old pupils constitute 34.3 per cent 
of the grade group. In the fourth year of the high school the 
seventeen-year-old pupils constitute 34.3 per cent of the 
grade group. Further, it is to be noted that until the factor 
of selection operates strongly in the later years of the 
secondary school the proportion of pupils belonging to any 
age group which is found in any single grade of the school 
rarely is as great as one-third of the entire age group found 
in the entire school system. This is seen clearly from the 
figures presented in Table III. 

Consideration of such a typical situation as that indicated 
in the tables given shows clearly that chronological age is a 
very poor measure of maturity for educational purposes and 
that the actual existing situation in our educational system 
does not even approximately conform to the theoretical dis- 
tribution of age and grade. Hence it is that the term "peda- 
gogical age'* is frequently employed to denote degrees of 
maturity as measured by the stages of educational progress 
(school grades) reached. It is obvious, however, that peda- 
gogical age is a general term designed largely to eliminate 
the confusion caused by the use of chronological age as a 
measure of maturity and that it depends for real meaning 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 7 

Table HI. Percentages of Pupils of Different Age Groups 

LOCATED IN VARIOUS GrADES OF THE SCHOOLS OF SiX CiTIES. 

The Total Number of Pupils considered was approxi- 
mately 35,000* 



Grades 






Age in 


years 






12 


13 


U 


15 


16 


17 


1 


0.7% 

1.9 

5.8 
11.7 
22.1 
28.2 
21.6 

7.0 

0.9 

0.1 

0.0 

0.0 


0.2% 

0.8 

2.8 

6.7 
13.2 
21.5 
27.5 
19.8 

6.4 

1.0 

0.0 

0.0 


0.2% 

0.4 

1.5 

3.4 

7.1 
12.2 
21.3 
28.5 
15.9 

8.7 

0.8 

0.0 


0.2% 

0.1 

0.6 

2.0 

3.3 

6.6 
12.7 
19.6 
27.5 , 
22.0 

4.8 

0.6 


0.2% 

0.1 

0.4 

0.6 

1.4 

1.9 

5.8 
12.6 
20.7 
31.0 
19.4 

5.9 


0.1% 


2 


0.1 


3 


0.0 


4 


0.1 


5 


0.3 


6 


0.8 


7 


1.7 


8 


4.6 


I 


10.9 


II 


26.6 


in 


27.9 


IV 


27.0 







* Inglis, A. J. "A Fundamental Problem in the Reorganization of the High School," 
School _Beview, vol. xxni, p. 316. 

on more fundamental measm'es of the two underlying and 
correlated factors, physical and mental maturity. Thus we 
have at least four measures of maturity: chronological age, 
pedagogical age, physiological age, and psychological age. 
By chronological age is meant the number of years and 
months a boy or girl has lived. By pedagogical age is meant 
the grade which he has reached in school or the stage of his 
educational progress. By physiological age is meant the 
degree of maturity which he has reached as measured by the 
development of various organs and parts of the body, or of 
the body as a whole. It is sometimes restricted in its appli- 
cation to stages of pubescence and adolescence. By psycho- 
logical or mental age is meant the degree of maturity which 
the boy or girl has reached as measured by the development 
of mental traits. That chronological age is by no means 



8 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

parallel with pedagogical age has been suggested above. 
That it is not closely paralleled by physiological age or by 
psychological age is a matter of everyday observation. A 
boy sixteen years of age may be less mature physiologically 
and mentally than another boy twelve years of age. 

The consideration of physiological age is the special pur- 
pose of this chapter. The consideration of psychological age, 
together with problems of the relation between psychological 
age and other "ages," is the special purpose of Chapter II. 

3. The growth of children in height and weight. The 
phenomena of growth in height and weight are probably the 
most easily observed and readily measured phenomena 
affording information concerning the physical growth of 
children and hence they have received the most attention. 
Numerous studies afford valuable data regarding the height 
and weight of children at various chronological ages. For 
the present purpose we may consider the figures calculated 
by Boas from data concerning 88,449 American school chil- 
dren in height and about 68,000 in weight. (Tables IV-V.) 

From these two tables a number of facts may be deduced: 
(1) The rate of growth in height and weight as measured by 
the per cent of annual increase varies at different periods 
and between the sexes. (2) For boys the rate of growth in 
height is relatively high (average per year 5.4 per cent) 
from age 5.5 to age 8.5, is relatively low (average per year 
3.25 per cent) from age 8.5 to age 12.5, and is relatively high 
again (average per year 4 per cent) from age 12.5 to age 16.5 
where the limit of average height for adults (about 68 inches) 
is approached. (3) For boys the rate of growth in weight is 
relatively high (average per year 9.8 per cent) from age 6.5 
to age 8.5, is relatively low (average per year 8.95 per cent) 
from age 8.5 to age 12.5, and is relatively high again (average 
per year 12 per cent) from age 12.5 to age 16.5. (4) For girls 
the-rate of growth in height remains relatively constant from 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



9 



Table IV. Average Height of 45,151 Boys and 43,298 Girls 
IN THE Schools of Certain American Cities, with Measures 
OP Increase and Variability* 



Average 

age 

in 

years 


Boys 


Girls 


Average 
height 
(inches) 


Mean 

variation 
(inches) 


Average annual 
increase 


Average 

height 

(inches) 


Mean 
variation 
(inches) 


Average annual 
increase 


Inches 


Per cent 


Inches 


Per cent 


5.5 

6.5 

7.5 

8.5 

9.5 

10.5 

11.5 

12.5 

13.5 

14.5 

15.5 

16.5 

17.5 

18.5 


41.7 
43.9 
46.0 
48.8 
50.0 
51.9 
53.6 
55.4 
57.5 
60.0 
62.9 
64.9 
66.5 
67.4 


1.7 
1.8 

2.0 j ! 
2.1 

2.2 j 

2.3 j 

\ 

2.6 j 
3.0 j 
3.3 j 

n 

3.0 
2.8] 


2.2 
2.1 
2.8 
1.2 
1.9 
1.7 
1.8 
2.1 
2.5 
2.9 
2.0 
1.6 
0.9 


5.3 

4.8 
6.1 
2.5 
3.8 
3.3 
3.4 
3.8 
4.3 
4.8 
3.2 
3.5 
1.4 


41.3 
43.3 
45.7 
47.7 
49.7 
51.7 
53.8 
56.1 
68.5 
60.4 
61.6 
62.2 
62.7 


1.9 j 
2.0 j 

2.2 j 
2.2} 
2.4} 
2.6 j 
2.9} 
2.8 { 
2.6 j 

2.3 j 
2.2] 

... i' 


2.0 
2.4 
2.0 
2.0 
2.0 
2.1 
2.3 
2.4 
1.9 
1.2 
0.6 
0.5 


4.8 

5.5 

\ I 

4.4 

^ ! 

4.2, 

4.0 
4.1 
4.3 
4.3 
3.2 
2.0 
1.0 
0.8 



* Burk, F., " Growth of Children in Height and "Weight," American Journal of Psychology, 
vol. IX, p. 262. Figures after Boas, F., Report of the United States Commissioner of Edu- 
cation (1896-97), vol. II, pp. 1541-99. Measurements were made on different groups of 
children for the several ages. 

age 7.5 to age 13.5 where the average adult limit begins to 
be approached. (5) For girls the rate of growth in weight is 
relatively high (average per year 10 per cent) from age 6.5 
to age 8.5, is relatively low (average per year 9.5 per cent) 
from age 8.5 to age 10.5, and is relatively high (average per 
year 12 per cent) from age 10.5 to age 14.5. (6) Boys excel 
girls in height from birth up to age about 11.5 and after 
about 14.5. In weight they excel girls from birth up to 



10 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table V. Average Weight of about 68,000 American 
Children in Certain Cities, with the Annual Increases* 







Boys 






Girls 




Averagt 


























age in 
yeara 


Average for 
each age 


Absolute 
annual 


Anniud 
increase 


Average for 
each age 


Absolute 
annual 


Annual 
increase 




(pounds) 


increase 
(pounds) 


(per cent) 


(pounds) 


increase 
(pounds) 


(per cerii) 


6.5 


45.2 X 






43.4 J 










4.3 


9.5 


> 


4.3 


9.9 


7.5 


49.5 






47.7 ' 










5.0 


10.1 


> 


4.8 


10.0 


8.5 


54.5 






52.5 J 








( 


5.1 


9.3 


f 


4.9 


9.3 


9.5 


59.6 


» 




57.4 ' 






' 


1 ' 


5.8 


9.7 


J 


5.5 


9.6 


10.5 


65.4 






62.9 








f. 


5.3 


8.1 


( 


6.6 


10.5 


11.5 


70.7 






69.5 










6.2 


8.7 


( 


9.2 


13.2 


12.5 


76.9 






78.7 










7.9 


10.3 


( 


10.0 


12.7 


13.5 


84.8 






88.7 








' 


10.4 


12.3 




9.6 


11.9 


14.5 


95.2 






98.3 










12.2 


12.8 


> 


8.4 


8.5 


15.5 


107.4 






106.7 ^ 








( 


13.6 


12.7 


( 


5.6 


5.2 


16.5 


121.0 ^ 




\ 


112.3 

r 


3.1 


2.8 


17.5 


... 


... 




115.4 ' 






18.5 


... 




... 


114.9 ' 







♦ From Burk, F. (after Boas), op. cit., p. 263. 



about age 12.5 and after about 15.5. For a period of about 
three years around the age of puberty and early adolescence 
girls excel boys in height and weight. They tend to mature 
earlier. (7) For girls and boys the mean variation in height 
from age 8.5 on is at every age greater than the amount 
of the average annual increase. This fact illustrates very 
clearly the danger of applying general averages to individual 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



11 



cases or to small groups. "Each individual is a law unto 
himself. A school child may be several inches shorter and 
many pounds lighter than the average for children of his 
age, race, and sex, while fully reaching the standard which 
nature set for him." ^ Even when we are dealing with large 
groups the amount of the variability must be considered 
just as important as the average. This is shown for height 
in the following table: 

Table VI. Showing the Frequencies of Heights of American 
Boys and Girls of Ages from 11.5 to 16.5 Years. Fre- 
quencies in Per Cents of Total Age Groups* 



Height in 




Boys : age in years 






Girls : age in years 


centi- 






















meters 






















1 




11.5 


12.5 


13.5 


11^.5 


15.5 


16.5 


11.5 


12.5 


13.5 


H.5 


15.5 


16.5 


10»-112 


0.2 
























113-116 


0.2 












0.3 


0.2 










• 


117-120 


0.4 


o.i 


O.i 








0.6 


0.2 


0.2 








• • . 


121-124 


2.5 


0.7 


0.3 


0.2 


O.i 




3.1 


0.7 


0.2 








• * • 


125-128 


9.1 


2.7 


0.9 


0.3 






8.16 


2.1 


0.3 


0.2 








129-132 


18.1 


8.8 


2.6 


0.6 






18.0 


6.5 


1.2 


0.3 








133-136 


25.5 


18.2 


7.6 


2.0 


0.4 




23.4 


13.1 


3.9 


1.0 








137-140 


22.3 


23.3 


14.9 


6.1 


1.1 


0.5 


20.8 


19.5 


10.0 


2.6 


0.9 


0.2 


141-144 


13.9 


21.2 


20.9 


10.8 


4.4 


1.1 


14.3 


21.7 


14.3 


6.1 


2.2 


1.0 


145-148 


5.3 


13.6 


19.8 


17.1 


7.4 


1.5 


6.8 


16.2 


20.1 


12.6 


6.4 


4.6 


149-152 


1.9 


7.0 


14.9 


18.2 


13.4 


5.1 


3.1 


11.0 


21.7 


22.6 


18.0 


13.6 


153-156 


0.4 


3.0 


10.2 


17.1 


15.4 


7.6 


0.7 


5.8 


16.0 


26.2 


27.4 


23.9 


157-160 


0.2 


1.1 


4.8 


11.9 


16.8 


13.8 


0.3 


2.4 


8.3 


16.7 


23.0 


26.5 


161-164 




0.3 


1.8 


8.4 


14.7 


18.9 




0.4 


3.0 


8.1 


14.8 


18.6 


165-168 






0.6 


3.9 


12.9 


20.3 




0.2 


0.6 


2.7 


5.7 


8.7 


169-172 






0.4 


2.3 


8.0 


19.1 






0.2 


0.7 


1.2 


2.6 


173-176 








0.7 


3.1 


7.5 








0.2 


0.4 


0.2 


177-180 








0.3 


1.0 


3.9 












0.1 


181-184 










0.1 


0.6 














185-188 












0.1 















* Adapted from Burk, F. (after Boas), op. cit., pp. 265-66. 

The figures in this table indicate clearly the danger of 
relying on averages. This is obvious from the extensive 
range in height between the smallest boy or girl of any 
given age and the tallest of the same age (averaging nearly 
a foot and a half), from the great amount of variation in 
^ Terman, L. M., The Hygiene of the School Child, p. 21. 



n ' PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

eacli age group, and from the great amount of overlapping. 
In general it may be said that the average height for a boy 
or girl of any chronological age from 11.5 to 18.5 is equalled 
or surpassed by the height of more than twenty per cent of 
the boys or girls a year younger. ' 

The variability in height and weight has been made the 
basis of several investigations designed to discover what 
relation, if any, exists between physical growth and mental 
ability. Are children who are heavier and taller than their 
fellows of the same chronological age more or less mature 
mentally than the latter, or is there no relation between 
physical growth (as measured by height and weight) and 
mental ability? Porter maintained that there is a physical 
basis for precocity and dullness, with the advantage in favor 
of those physically more mature. He bases his argument 
primarily on data collected and compiled by himself for the 
heights and weights of about 34,500 boys and girls as related 
to their pedagogical progress. While his figures apply partic- 
ularly to elementary-school pupils the point which he raises 
may be made clear through the presentation of data for 
pupils fourteen to sixteen years of age. (Table VII.) 

Porter says: "The truth which the [original] table ex- 
presses is very plain. It declares in unmistakable lines that 
precocious children are heavier and dull children lighter than 
the mean child of the same age. It establishes a physical 
basis of precocity and dullness." Boas calls attention to the 
fact, however, that the figures show a correlation between 
mental and physical growth but not necessarily that mental 
development depends on physical growth. West further 
notes that two errors are involved in Porter's results because 
a number of pupils enter school at a late age and are there- 
fore incorrectly counted as "dull" pupils, and because 
Porter's results are capable of misinterpretation through his 
method of reckoning age according to the nearest birthday.^ 
1 West, G. M., Sciencey vol. iv, pp. 156-59. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



13 



Table VH. Showing the Relation of School Progress to 
Weight as indicated by the Distribution of Heavy and 

' Light Children of the Same Ages in Different Grades of 
the St. Louis Schools* 





Mean weight 
(pounds) 


Average weight of children in grades 


Age at near- 
est birthday 


Elementary school 


High 




3 


i 


5 


6 


7 


8 


School 


,.i Boys 
^* 1 Girls 

15 i ^°y^ 
*^ I Girls 

,g I Boys 
^^ \ Girls 


88.08 
93.94 

100 .20 
103.20 

114.17 
110.06 


81.00 
90.50 


84.00 
87.17 

89.00 
98.50 


87.83 
92.67 

95.33 
100.96 


87.20 
94.64 

99.17 
99.83 

114 .50 
108 .12 


93.63 
96.15 

105.50 
104.00 

104.00 
107.38 


97.50 
99.00 

105.17 
104 .58 

114.00 
110.29 


86.50 
103.12 

105.08 
105 . 15 

123.00 
113.37 



* Adapted from Burk, F. (after Porter), op. cit., pp. 296-97. 

Boias, using data collected by West at Toronto, made a com- 
parison of the relative brightness of children and their stages 
of physical development in weight.^ The results which he 
obtained were diametrically opposed to those found by 
Porter, though his results cannot be accepted as satisfac- 
torily obtained because of methods employed in determining 
the *' brightness" of pupils on the basis of teachers' judg- 
ments. MacDonald,^ using the teachers* estimates of 
"brightness," and Smedley,^ using age and grade progress 
as measures, found that "bright" children were taller and 
heavier than "dull" children. Baldwin* distinguishes be- 
tween "precocity" and advanced stages of mental matura- 
tion, and, basing his conclusions on the school grades and 

1 Boas, R, Science, vol. i, pp. 225-30. 

2 MacDonald, A., Report of the United States Commissioner of Education 
(1897-98), vol. I, pp. 989-1204; vol. ii, pp. 1281-90. 

3 Smedley, F. W., Report of the Department of Child Study of the Public 
Schools, Chicago, vol. 2, pp. 10-48. 

* Baldwin, B. T., Physical Growth and School Progress, pp. 89-90. 



14 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

physical growth measured in the same children at different 
ages, states that tall children are older physiologically and 
more mature mentally, though frequently not as bright. 
Gilbert^ claims a lack of correlation. The conflicting con- 
clusions reached by the different investigators render the 
problem complex. However, the consensus of opinion that 
feeble-minded children are commonly inferior in height and 
weight could lend support to the theory that there is an 
important correlation between mental abihty and physical 
growth in height and weight. Terman claims: "For masses, 
however, the relationship undoubtedly holds." ^ Porter's 
suggestion is not without importance that: "No child whose 
weight or height is below the average (median or norm) for 
its age should be permitted to enter a school grade beyond 
the average of its age except after such a physical examina- 
tion as shall make it probable that the child's strength is 
equal to the strain."^ 

4. The growth of organs and parts of the body. It is some- 
times thought that the process of growth throughout the 
body is essentially uniform and that the various organs and 
parts of the body develop at about the same rates and in 
about the same proportions at different stages. Such a con- 
ception is erroneous. Growth is relative in the various 
organs and parts of the body. Each organ and part has its 
own rate of development. After initial rapid development 
in babyhood some organs and parts develop at a fairly con- 
stant rate until the limits of growth are approached. Others 
develop rapidly in early childhood and more slowly later. 
Still others manifest a relatively rapid rate of development in 

1 Gilbert, J. A., Researches on School Children and College Students, Studies 
from the Yale Psychological Laboratory, vol. i, pp. 1-39. 

2 Terman, L. M., The Hygiene of the School Child, pp. 27-29. 

8 Porter, W. T., The Physical Basis of School Progress, Transactions of 
the St. Louis Academy of Science, vol. 6, pp. 161-81. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



15 



early childhood, then a period of relatively slow develop- 
ment, followed again by a relatively rapid rate of develop- 
ment. The various organs and parts of the body which have 
been measured carefully in their development manifest 
widely varying rates of growth.^ Growth in height and 
weight may be and probably is significant of activity in the 
growth processes of various organs and parts of the body 
whose rates of development vary widely from each other 
and from such total growth as can be measured by height 
and weight. 

In the following table are presented figures for growth in 
vital capacity and in the circumference of the head. 



Table Vm* 





Vital capacity in 


cubic centimeters 


Circumference of the head in millimeters 




{Smedley) 




(MacDonald) 


Age 


Boys 


Girls 


Boys 


OirU 




Norm 


Increase 


Norm 


Increase 


Norm 


Increase 


Norm 


Increast 


6 


1023 




950 




513.6 




506.2 




7 


1168 


14.2 


1061 


11.7 


619.4 


11.10 


606.5 


0.0« 


8 


1316 


12.7 


1165 


9.1 


620.9 


0.29 


611.6 


1.01 


9 


1469 


11.6 


1286 


10.4 


623.5 


0.50 . 


615.4 


0.74 


10 


1603 


9.1 


1409 


9.6 


626.6 


0.57 


518.9 


0.68 


11 


1732 


8.0 


1526 


8.3 


628.8 


0.44 


621.7 


0.54 


12 


1883 


8.7 


1664 


9.0 


631.9 


0.58 


627.8 


1.17 


13 


2108 


12.0 


1827 


9.8 


633.7 


0.34 


632.1 


0.81 


14 


2395 


13.6 


2014 


10.2 


638.7 


0.93 


638.0 


1.11 


15 


2697 


12.6 


2168 


7.6 


644.8 


1.13 


640.6 


0.46 


16 


3120 


15.7 


2266 


4.5 


550.4 


1.03 


643.0 


0.46 


17 


3483 


11.3 


2319 


2.3 


655.5 


0.93 


647.4 


0.81 


18 


3655 


4.9 


2343 


1.0 


656.5 


0.18 


648.6 


0.22 



* Table adapted and increments derived by the writer from data given by Smedley, 

F. W., Report of the Department of Child-Study, Chicago, vol. 2, pp. 13-14, and from Whipple, 

G. M. (after MacDonald, A.), Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, Part I, pp. 88-89. 

Hall claims that the lungs share in the augmented devel- 
opment of adolescence. Smedley claims that girls increase 

* Cf. Hall, G. S., Adolescence; and Weissenberg, S., Das Wachstum dea 
Menschen nach Alter. 



16 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

most rapidly in vital capacity from 12 to 14, after which the 
increment is at a diminished rate; that boys take a sudden 
start upward at 14, and continue a rapid rise until at least 
19i; and that boys have a larger vital capacity than girls at 
all ages. Baldwin and Smedley claim that there is a positive 
correlation between vital capacity and school standing. 
Gilbert claims that there is no correlation. 

It is tempting to take the development of the skull as 
indicating a possible measurement of the development of 
the brain and nervous system. Such a theory is in all prob- 
ability quite untenable, inasmuch as the development of 
the head in circumference is largely due to the growth of the 
bones of the skull and the weight of the brain does not in- 
crease in the same proportion as intelligence. The most 
appropriate analogy between the development of mental 
traits and physical traits would naturally be concerned with 
the development of the nervous system and especially of 
the brain. It is recognized, however, that the development 
of mental traits depends not so much on the increase of the 
brain in mass as measured by size or weight as on the 
development of neurone cells and their interconnections. 
On this our present knowledge sheds little light and infer- 
ences are dangerous. To argue for a parallelism of mental 
development and physical development by analogy, and then 
to argue that there is correspondence in the development of 
the nervous system following from the supposed develop- 
ment of mental traits, is to argue in a vicious circle. Concern- 
ing the development of the nervous system Terman*s state- 
ments are here appropriate; 

Compared to the rest of the body, the central nervous system 
shows a precocious growth in size and weight. At birth the brain 
has already attained about one fourth of its final size, and by seven 
years over ninety per cent. Growth continues much retarded up 
to about fourteen, and then practically ceases. But here, least of 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 17 

all, does weight give any idea as to maturity. The cells of the 
brain, although all present in embryonic, granule form for several 
months preceding birth, only gradually ripen into their fully 
differentiated structure and put forth their branching network of 
dendrites. . . . The acquisition of the medullary sheath, which we 
have above spoken of as the ripening process, proceeds rapidly 
in the sensory centers and more gradually in the frontal portion, 
named by Flechsig the "association centers." This includes almost 
two thirds of the cerebral cortex, which together with the middle 
sheath of tangential fibers, shows remarkable and important 
changes in the cellular development of later adolescence, the 
changes continuing probably as late as forty years. ^ 

Studies of the growth of the bones of the body have em- 
phasized the variations in the development of parts of the 
body in two rather noteworthy respects. The researches of 
Rotch and Pryor indicate that anatomical development, as 
measured by stages in ossification, is largely independent of 
chronological age and of development in height or weight, 
except in the most general way. They further indicate that 
girls are more advanced than boys at every age with respect 
to the stage of ossification of the epiphyseal cartilage, though 
in height, weight, and possibly in vital capacity, such supe- 
riority on the part of girls is found only as previously indi- 
cated from about twelve to about fourteen.^ 

5. Physical development in relation to health. On the 
whole it appears probable that mortality is lowest and the 
capacity to resist disease highest at ages about ten to four- 
teen, or preceding and during the early stages of pu- 
berty. Accurate figures are difficult to secure and still more 
difficult to interpret. In 1910-11 for certain registration 
areas of the United States the uncorrected death rates 
for various age groups were as indicated in the following 
table : 

^ Terman, L. M., The Hygiene of the School Child, pp. 57-58. 
2 Ibid., pp. 62-63. 



18 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table IX. Death-Ratbs per 1000 Population for Various 
Age Groups in 1910-11* 



Age groups 


22 states 


50 cities 














' 


Male 


Female 


Both sexes 


Male 


Female 


Both sexes 


1- 4 years 


12.2 


11.3 


11.8 


15.3 


13.9 


14.6 


5- 9 " 


3.2 


3.0 


3.1 


j 4.0 


3.6 


3.8 


10-14 " 


2.3 


2.1 


2.2 


2.9 


2.5 


2.7 


15-19 " 


3.8 


3.5 


3.6 


4.5 


4.0 


4.3 


20-24 " 


5.4 


5.0 


5.2 


6.6 


5.7 


6.1 



* Compiled by the writer from data given on pp. 16-17 of Department of Commerce, 
Bureau of the Census, Mortality Statistics (1911). Figures for cities are in terms of the 
average rates for fifty cities each of 100,000 population or over. 

Hartwell's figures for death rates in the City of Boston 
were obtained more thaji twenty-five years ago. In terms 
of deaths per thousand for various ages they are indicated 
in the following table: 

Table X* 



Age 


Male 


Female 


Age 


Male 


Female 


4- 5 


20.73 


21.55 


12-13 


3.44 


4.30 


5- 6 


14.85 


16.44 


13-14 


4.18 


6.17 


6-7 


13.40 


14.38 


14-15 


3.98 


5.83 


7- 8 


9.35 


9.62 


15-16 


5.31 


5.89 


8- 9 


6.09 


8.11 


16-17 


6.58 


6.57 


9-10 


7.41 


5.11 


17-18 


6.43 


7.94 


10-11 


4.77 


5.23 


18-19 


10.48 


6.32 


11-12 


4.28 


3.23 


19-20 


10.35 


10.48 



* Hartwell, E. M., Report on Physical Education in the Boston Public Schools. 

Such figures as those presented in these two tables must 
be interpreted with great caution. The removal at early 
ages of those who are more susceptible to illness and death 
constantly makes each successive group more select in 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 19 

health so that the decrease in the death-rate from childhood 
to puberty may in no direct way be related to development 
with age. It is to be noted also that preventive medicine 
and improved hygiene tend to decrease the death-rate at 
early ages and tend to increase it at later ages. In this con- 
nection it may be mentioned that Hartwell found that the 
age of the minimum death-rate was the thirteenth year in 
1875, the fourteenth year in 1885, and the fifteenth year 
in 1890. 

It is frequently stated that the period of puberty and 
early adolescence is characterized by low mortality rates and 
a high resistance to diseases of a serious character, but by a 
susceptibility to minor illnesses. The evidence in all cases 
is by no means clear. Neither is it clear that a low rate of 
mortality, if it is found for puberty, is necessarily related 
to the phenomena of development. On the whole Terman*s 
statements concerning investigations in this field are appro- 
priate.^ 

Investigations on this point are somewhat contradictory, but 
indicate on the whole that, although the mortality rate is lowest 
when the adolescent acceleration is greatest, morbid conditions 
of both mind and body are at that time most frequent. This is 
particularly true of girls. It is necessary, however, to discriminate 
diseases and to determine the curve of liability of each. To lump 
together diseases and complaints of every kiud and to enumerate 
them as so many "Ulnesses" or "defects" is of doubtful value, at 
best, and may be misleading. 

Many more and much more accurate investigations are 
necessary before we may, with any certainty, determine the 
relation of health to maturity or the phenomena of develop- 
ment. 

6. The physiological phenomena of adolescence. "Ado- 
lescence" (from the Latin adolescere — to grow up, to ma- 
^ Terman, L. M., The Hygiene of the School Childt p. 26. 



20 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ture) is the term applied to that stage of development of 
boys and girls between the approximate ages of twelve 
and twenty, when the procreative powers are developing. 
"Puberty" is the term applied to the initial stage of physio- 
logical development at adolescence.^ From its beginning 
secondary education has been closely associated with the 
period of puberty and adolescence and in many ways its 
character has frequently been determined, directly or indi- 
rectly, by the physiological phenomena connected with that 
period of development. Thus among primitive peoples what 
formal education existed was related to the initiatory rites 
and ceremonies which took place at puberty or during 
adolescence. Among the Greeks the very terms employed 
to characterize certain forms or stages of education indi- 
cated the connection between education and puberty. ^ At 
the present time the period of secondary education either 
coincides with or is included in the period of puberty or 
early adolescence so that any fruitful analysis of physical 
or physiological development and of secondary education 
requires careful study of the phenomena of adolescence. 
Such an analysis is of great importance for the proper under- 
standing and treatment of adolescent boys and girls in direct 
connection with the physical and physiological traits them- 
selves. It becomes increasingly important in view of the 
correlation sometimes claimed between physiological and 
mental traits and in view of certain indirect effects of physi- 
cal or physiological traits on mental traits through the 
determination of subjective attitudes. 

If puberty began for all children or even for all boys or all 
girls at approximately the same chronological age, problems 

* In its strict sense puberty has reference to the growth of hair on the 
body. 

2 Eirenic and ephebic from etprjv and l06/3os = having attained the age of 
^berty, from iirl = at and ^^v = puberty, the state of being marriageable. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



SI 



arising out of the phenomena of adolescence would be much 
less complicated than they are. The date of the onset of 
puberty varies both for boys and for girls. It varies accord- 
ing to race, according to climate, and according to many 
other conditions. Hence, from the mere fact of chronological 
age one cannot predicate that a child is immature, maturing, 
or aheady mature. This appears clearly from the results 
obtained by Crampton who measured 3825 boys in the high 
schools of New York City and classified them in three groups 
of the prepubescent (immature), pubescent (maturing), and 
postpubescent (mature). 

Table XI. Distribution of Boys by Chronological Age 
AND BY Physiological Age as measured by Stages of 
Pubescence * 



Mean age in years 


Prepubescent 


Pubescent 


Postpubescent 


(immature) 


(maturing) 


(mature) 


12.25 


(81)% 


(16)% 


(mo 


12.75 


69 


25 


6 


13.25 


55 


26 


18 


13.75 


41 


28 


31 


14.25 


26 


28 


46 


14.75 


16 


24 


60 


15.25 


9 


20 


70 


15.75 


5 


10 


85 


16.25 


2 


4 


93 


16.75 


1 


4 


95 


17.25 





2 


98 


17.75 








100 



* Crampton, C. W., "Physiological Age 
Physical Education'^Review, vol. xiii, p. 150. 



A Fundamental Principle," American 



The change from prepubescence to pubescence is most 
noticeable from age 13.75 to age 14.25. 

The other ages immediately preceding this, however, are also 
popular, and the average date is much earlier than the mean date. 
For the ending of prepubescence and the beginning of pubescence 



22 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the middle of the mean year is 14.00 years, the average date is 
13.44 years with a variability (mean square deviation) of 1.51 
years. ^ 

This means that it requires a range of about three years 
to include approximately two thirds of the cases. The full 
significance of this variability is noted by Cramp ton: 

If the immature differed from the mature in no other way than 
this particular sign, it would hardly be worth while to segregate 
these groups. The classification shows, however, that there is a 
striking physical change in the progress from immaturity to matur- 
ity. At characteristic ages, the mature are more than 33 per cent 
heavier, 10 per cent taller, and 33 per cent stronger than the 
immature. 

To substantiate this statement he presents among others 
the following figures : 

Table XH* 





Average weight 


in 


Average height 


in 


Average strength of 


Age 
in 




kilograms 




centimeters 




grip 


in kilograms 


years 






















Prepu- 


Pubes- 


Postpu- 


Prepu- 


Pubes- 


Postpu- 


Prepu- 


Pubes- 


Postpu- 




bescent 


cent 


bescent 


bescent 


cent 


bescent 


bescent 


cent 


bescent 


12.75 


25.2 


36.6 


(50.8) 


144.0 


147.5 


150.5 


26.6 


28.2 


(32.5) 


13.25 


35.0 


37.2 


44.3 


144.2 


148.7 


153.9 


26.3 


28.1 


33.6 


13.75 


35.4 


37.9 


43.8 


145.7 


150.4 


155.9 


27.6 


30.4 


35.2 


14.25 


35.2 


38.6 


45.4 


146.6 


150.6 


157.9 


27.3 


30.2 


37.8 


14.75 


36.8 


39.0 


47.2 


147.3 


151.7 


158.9 


29.4 


30.8 


38.3 


15.25 


37.9 


38.8 


47.7 


149.8 


151.5 


160.7 


29.6 


31.1 


40.1 


15.75 


36.7 


41.8 


49.3 


149.8 


153.1 


162.6 


32.5 


30.4 


42.9 


16.25 


(40.0) 


38.3 


51.6 


151.0 


152.4 


164.6 


31.7 


29.6 


43.8 


16.75 


(42.5) 


(41.5) 


53.5 


(153.0) 


(151.4) 


165.4 


(27.5) 


33.2 


48.3 



* Crampton, C. W., "The Influence of Physiological Age on Scholarship," The Psycha- 
logical Clinic, vol. i, pp. 117-18. 

The correlation between stages of puberty and such physi- 
cal traits as height and weight is indicated by these data. 
The correlation between physical development in height and 
1 Crampton, C. W., op. cit., p. 146. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 23 

weight and mental ability or school progress was considered 
in a preceding section. Cramp ton maintains: 

Greater height, weight, and strength are related to better scholar- 
ship because they are all effects of the same cause, — earlier 
pubescence. ... It is possible that if this factor were to be elimi- 
nated there would appear a minus instead of a plus relation between 
scholarship and weight.^ 

These statements he bases on the results obtained by com- 
paring the average status in physical traits of boys of the 
same chronological age and the same physiological age 
groups which differed only in pedagogical age by one high- 
school term, and by observing the rate of success and fail- 
ure of boys of each chronological age and physiological age 
group. Employing the latter method he found that postpu- 
bescents were more successful, eighteen per cent failing to 
pass into the next form as against twenty-seven per cent of 
failure for the prepubescents at thirteen years of age. At 
the age of fourteen the per cents of failure were twenty-four 
and thirty-four respectively; at fifteen they were twenty-nine 
and thirty-six. As a result he maintains that earlier pubes- 
cence favors good scholarship and later pubescence poorer 
scholarship. 

Variability also characterizes the date of the appearance 
and development of pubescence among girls. This is shown 
in Table XIII. 

From these figures the following conclusions may be 
drawn: (1) the date of the onset of puberty is highly variable 
for girls; (2) girls of the same chronological age differ widely 
with respect to their stages of physiological maturity as 
measured by puberty; (3) less than five per cent of girls are 
still prepubescent at the age of fifteen; (4) pubescence begins 
for girls earlier than for boys. 

7. Some implications for secondary education. As a result 
^ Crampton, C. W., oy. city pp. 118-19. 



U PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table XTTT. Distribution of 1241 Girls by Chronological' 
Age and Stages of Puberty* 



Mean age in years 


Prepubescent 
(immature) 


Pubescent (.maturing) 


Postpubescent 
(mature) 


10.0 


100.00% 


0.00% 


0.00% 


10.5 


93.75 


6.25 


0.00 


11.0 


100.00 


0.00 


0.00 


11.5 


78.84 


19.23 


1.92 


12.0 


62.06 


37.93 


0.00 


12.5 


58.20 


23.88 


17.91 


13.0 


39.53 


34.88 


25.58 


13.5 


15.15 


37.87 


46.96 


14.0 


15.38 


38.46 


46.15 


14.5 


4.83 


17.74 


77.42 


15.0 


0.00 


14.54 


85.45 


15.5 


1.55 


7.81 


90.62 


16.0 


2.04 


6.12 


91.83 


16.5 


0.00 


3.17 


96.83 


17.0 


0.00 


0.00 


100.00 



* Baldwin, B. T., "A Measuring Scale for Physical Growth and Physiological Age," 
Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society for^ the Study of Education, part i, chap, i, p. 17. 
The relatively small number of cases examined precludes any exact interpretation and 
explains some minor fluctuations. The general tendency is, however, obvious. 

of his study of physiological age in connection with high- 
school pupils Crampton recommends : 

Where mature and immature children are now brought together 
In the same class in the elementary or high school, they should 
be separated into different classes, so that the pedagogical, ethical 
and social treatment to which they are subjected may be better 
adapted to their disparate and distinct requirements and abilities.^ 

An experiment carried on in a New York City high 
school more or less sustained Crampton's thesis. Foster, 
giving the results of that experiment, presents the following 
figures : 

1 Crampton, C. W., " Anatomical or Physiological Age: versus Chron- 
ological Age," Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xv, p. 236. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



25 



Table XIV* 





Registered 
number 


Discharges 
(per cent) 


Failures 
{per cent) 


Promotions 
(per cent) \ 


Eight classes arranged 
by physiological age . . 

Four classes not arranged 
by physiological age . . 

Previous class not ar- 
ranged by physiological 
age 


295 
149 

318 


20 
31 

27 


19 
17 

17 


61 
52 

5Q 







* Foster, W. L., "Physiological Age as a Basis for the Classification of Pupils entering 
High Schools," Psychological Clinic, vol. iv, p. 86. 

From these and other results Foster drew the following 
conclusions : 

(1) It is more agreeable for boys of the same development to 
associate with one another. (2) A classification of high school stu- 
dents according to physiological age, based on pubescence, is easy 
and practical. (3) By an experiment in a New York City high 
school it was shown that the efficiency of the students was increased 
by such a classification. The percentage of discharges was very 
materially decreased (from 7 per cent to 11 per cent decrease). 
(4) This increased efficiency is due to pleasanter associations with 
students of the same development. (5) There exists a very close 
relationship between pubescence and height. (6) In schools where 
physical examination is impossible, a classification according to 
height would probably produce almost the same results.^ 

Such statements are dangerous when made on the basis of 
such limited investigations as those of Foster. 

The classification suggested by Crampton and by Foster, 
however promising it may appear when considered apart 
from the exigencies of school administration, presents cer- 
tain difficulties when considered in relation to the ordinary 
demands of administration in the secondary school. Any 
1 Foster, W. L., op. cit., p. 88. 



26 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

scheme of classification which increases the homogeneity of 
the groups to be taught in one direction without decreasing 
it in another may be considered a priori as a means of im- 
proving teaching and increasing the measure of success. 
Hence it is to be expected that where conditions permit the 
division of pupils in a given grade into groups roughly homo- 
geneous with respect to the stages of physiological develop- 
ment (or any other important factor), better results may be 
looked for. In a large secondary school such a classification 
is frequently possible. In a small school, or even one of 
average size, such a subdivision of classes is impossible. Of 
the 11,674 public high schools in the United States in 1914- 
15 less than one tenth (990) were in cities of 8000 population 
or over and 10,684 were in communities of less than 8000 
population each. In smaller communities the "average" 
high school has 62 pupils. The "average" high school for 
the country at large has about 114 pupils, distributed some- 
what as follows: 47 (41 per cent) in the first-year class, 30 
(27 per cent) in the second-year class, 21 (19 per cent) in 
the third-year class, and l6 (14 per cent) in the fourth-year 
class. It is obvious that in the great majority of public 
secondary schools it is impracticable to subdivide classes for 
the purpose of segregating boys or girls or both according to 
degrees of pubescence. 

Far more practicable and far more justifiable is the sug- 
gestion of Baldwin : ^ 

Therefore, the obvious educational corollary is that our school 
systems, public and private, should take into careful consideration 
the 'physiological age and the accompanying stages of mental maturity 
of boys and girls, rather than the chronological age and brightness, 
as is now done. This would require that tall, healthy children of 
accelerated development be encouraged to proceed through school 

^ Baldwin, B. T., " A Measuring Scale for Physical Growth and Physio- 
logical Age," Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Edu- 
cation, part I, pp. 15-17. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 27 

as rapidly as possible within the limits of thoroughness, and that 
small, light children of retarded physiological development be 
kept below or in the normal grade, doing supplementary work, 
since these shorty light pupils are immature in mental development, 
although in many cases precocioiis in degree of brightness. 

Incomplete though our knowledge of physiological age is, 
it is suflScient to put us on guard against the practice of 
ignoring it as a factor of importance in school organization 
and administration. In a later section attention will be 
called to the fact that the practice of determining promo- 
tion by pedagogical age alone should be supplemented by 
recognition of physiological age, psychological age, chrono- 
logical age, and social age. 

8. The distribution of pupils according to puberty. Some 
conception of the complexity of problems involved in at- 
tempts to adjust education to stages of maturity according 
to puberty may be gained from an analysis of the pupil pop- 
ulation of a school system. In Tables XV-XVIII an esti- 
mate is made of such a distribution of pupils in the schools 
of Paterson New Jersey, in 1913. f -^ 

From these figures, and from more extended tables on 
which those given are based, a number of facts may be 
deduced : 

(1) Prepubescent, pubescent, and postpubescent children 
were found in almost every grade of the school system, the 
proportion of prepubescents gradually decreasing and the 
proportion of postpubescents gradually increasing. / 

(2) Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the ratio of 
prepubescent boys to postpubescent boys is almost exactly 
inverted from 5Q/^2 in the seventh grade to 22/58 in the 
ninth grade, while a similar ratio for girls is approximately 
inverted from 58/21 in the sixth grade to 18/57 in the eighth 
grade. Herein are observable: (a) the earlier pubescence of 
girls; (6) the transitional character of grades 6/7 to I. 



28 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table XV. Percentages of Prepubescent, Pubescent, and 

POSTPUBESCENT PUPILS IN VARIOUS GrADES OF THE PaTERSON 

(N.J.) Schools in November, 1913 * 





Boys 


Girls 


Both 










8 

a 
is 




"s 




*s 


1 




§ 






1 










S 


00 O 


s s 






« 


* S 




•» 


e 


<a 


05 5 


S 3 


1 


1 


J 


s 

Co 
O 




If 

-OD, 


3 


i 

S 


1 


■afti 


1^ 


S 
a. 


s 


S 

t 




-a, 


6 


ft. 
100 


ft. 



Os 


fti 

100 


ft. 


ft< 

100 


fti 


ft< 


ft; 


ft. 


ft. 


ftn 


fti 


ft, 


ft. 


1 














100 





100 








100 





2 


99 


1 





100 


1 


99 


1 





100 


1 


99 


1 





100 


1 


3 


97 


2 


1 


99 


3 


96 


3 


1 


99 


4 


97 


2 


1 


99 


3 


4 


92 


5 


3 


97 


8 


89 


7 


4 


96 


11 


90 


6 


4 


96 


10 


5 


81 


11 


8 


92 


19 


74 


15 


11 


89 


26 


78 


13 


9 


91 


22 


6 


69 


17 


14 


86 


31 


58 


21 


21 


79 


42 


64 


19 


17 


83 


36 


7 


5(> 


22 


22 


78 


44 


36 


26 


38 


62 


64 


46 


24 


30 


60 


54 


8 


35 


22 


43 


57 


65 


18 


25 


57 


43 


82 


26 


14 


60 


40 


74 


T 


22 


20 


58 


44 


78 


10 


19 


71 


29 


90 


17 


20 


63 


37 


83 


TT 


12 


15 


73 


27 


88 


3 


10 


87 


13 


97 


8 


12 


80 


20 


92 


TTT 


2 


8 


89 


11 


97 


1 


4 


96 


5 


100 


2 


5 


93 


7 


98 


IV 


1 


3 


96 


4 


99 





1 


99 


1 


100 





2 


98 


2 


100 



* Tables compiled by applying to the age-grade distribution of pupils in the Paterson 
schools for 1913 {Report of the Board of Education (1914), pp. 85-86), the proportions of 
pupils of difiFerent ages at different stages of maturity determined for boys by Crampton 
and for girls by Baldwin. The figures should be regarded as approximate estimates only. 
The writer has made similar tables for a number of cities which indicate that the situation 
in Paterson is fairly typical. 



Table XVI. Distribution according to Certain Important 
Divisions — Numbers 





Boys 


Girls 


Both 


Grades 


Pre- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pre- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post 
pubes- 
cent 


Pre- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent 


1-8 

I-IV.... 


7053 
121 


665 
125 


688 
629 


6267 

42 


828 
96 


1020 
743 


13320 
163 


1593 
121 


1708 
1372 


1-IV.... 


7174 


790 


1317 


6309 


924 


1763 


13483 


1714 


3080 


1-6 

7-1 

II-IV... 


6404 

738 

32 


363 

381 

46 


254 
665 
398 


5886 

415 

8 


470 

325 

29 


366 
899 
498 


12290 

1153 

40 


833 
706 

75 


620 

1564 

896 



PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



£9 



Table XVII. Distribution according to Certain Important 
Divisions — Per Cents 





Boya 


GirU 


Both 


Grades 


Pre- 

pubes- 
cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pre- 

pubes- 

cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pre- 

pubes- 

cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent 


1-8 

I-IV... 


98.3 
1.7 


84.1 
15.9 


52.3 

47.7 


99.4 
0.6 


89.6 
10.4 


67.8 

42.2 


98.9 
1.1 


86.9 
13.1 


55.4 
44.6 


1-IV.... 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


1-6 

7-1 

II-IV... 


89.4 

10.1 

0.5 


45.9 

48.2 

5.9 


19.1 
50.7 
30.2 


93.4 
6.5 
0.1 


50.9 

45.9 

3.2 


20.7 
51.0 
28.3 


91.2 
8.6 
0.2 


48.8 

46.6 

4.6 


20.1 
50.8 
29.1 



Explanation: Of prepubescent boys in the schools 98.3 per cent were in grades 1-8 and 1.7 
per cent were in grades I-IV, etc. 



Table XVIII. Distribution according to Stage of Puberty 
IN Various Divisions — Per Cents 





Boys 


Girls 


Both 


Grades 


Pre- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pre- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pre- 
pubes- 
cent 


Pubes- 
cent 


Post- 
pubes- 
cent ; 


1-8 

I-IV.... 


83.9 
13.8 


7.9 
14.3 


8.2 
71.9 


77.2 
4.8 


10.2 
10.9 


12.6 
84.3 


80.1 
9.3 


9.6 
12.6 


10.3 
78.1 


1-6 

7-1 

II-IV... 


91.2 

41.4 

6.7 


5.2 

21.3 

9.7 


3.6 
37.3 
83.6 


87.5 

25.3 

1.5 


7.0 

19.8 

5.4 


5.5 
54.9 
93.1 


89.4 

33.7 

4.0 


6.1 

20.6 

7.4 


4.5 
45.7 
88.6 



Explanation: Of all boys in grades 1-8 (elementary school) 83.9 per cent were prepu- 
bescent, 7.9 per cent were pubescent, and 8.2 per cent were postpubescent, etc. 



(3) Of all the immature (prepubescent) boys and girls in 
the public schools of Paterson in 1913 all but about one per 
cent were in the elementary school (grades 1-8). 

(4) Of all the maturing (pubescent) boys more than five 
sixths were in the elementary school: of all the pubescent 



so PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

girls nearly nine tenths were in the elementary school : of all 
pubescent pupils (boys and girls together) more than six 
sevenths were in the elementary school. The largest per- 
centage of pubescent pupils (about 21 per cent) was found 
in the seventh grade. About six per cent of pubescent boys, 
about t^;:^ee per cent of pubescent girls, and about j&ve per 
cent ©f pubescent pupils were found in grades II, III, IV of 
the high school. Other pubescent pupils were about equally 
divided between the division comprising grades 1-6 and the 
division comprising grades 7-1. More pubescent boys were 
in the sixth grade than in the entire high school, more pubes- 
cent girls in the fifth grade than in the entire high school, 
and more pubescent pupils in the fifth grade than in the 
entire high school. 

(5) Of all the mature boys (postpubescents) in the schools 
more than one half were in the elementary school (grades 
1-8). Of all the mature girls more than one half were in the 
elementary school. Of all mature pupils more than one half 
were in the elementary school and less than one half in the 
high school. More than one half of the postpubescent pupils 
of either sex were in grades 7, 6, 1. Less than one third of all 
postpubescent pupils were in grades II, III, IV, of the high 
school. The largest number of postpubescent pupils was in 
the eighth grade. Two thirds as many postpubescent pupils 
were in grades 1-6 as in grades II-IV. There were more post- 
pubescent girls in the sixth grade than in any grade of the 
high school except grade I. 

(6) Of all boys in grades 1-8 of the elementary school 
84 per cent were prepubescent, 8 per cent were pubescent, 
and 8 per cent postpubescent; of all the girls 77 per cent were 
prepubescent, 10 per cent pubescent, and 13 per cent post- 
pubescent; of all pupils in the elementary school (grades 1-8) 
80 per cent were prepubescent, 10 per cent pubescent, and 
10 per cent postpubescent. 



PHYSICAL TR.UTS OF THE PUPIL 81 

(7) Of all boys in the high school (grades I-IV) 14 per 
cent were prepubescent, 14 per cent pubescent, and 72 per 
cent post pubescent; of all the girls 5 per cent were pre- 
pubescent, 11 per cent pubescent, and 84 per cent post- 
pubescent; of all pupils in the high school 9 per cent were 
prepubescent, 13 per cent pubescent, and 78 per cent post- 
pubescent. 

(8) Of all boys in grades 1-6 of the elementary school 
91 per cent were prepubescent, 5 per cent pubescent, and 
4 per cent postpubescent; of all the girls in those grades 88 
per cent were prepubescent, 7 per cent pubescent, and 5 per 
cent postpubescent; of all pupils in those grades 89 per cent 
were prepubescent, 6 per cent pubescent, and 5 per cent 
postpubescent. 

I (9) Of all boys in grades 7, 8, I (last two grades of the 
elementary school and first grade of the high school) 41 
per cent were prepubescent, 21 per cent pubescent, and 
87 per cent postpubescent; of all the girls in those grades 25 
per cent were prepubescent, 20 per cent pubescent, and 
55 per cent postpubescent; of all pupils in those grades 34 per 
cent were prepubescent, 20 per cent pubescent, and 46 
per cent postpubescent. 

(10) Of all boys in grades II-IV (high school II, III, TV) 
7 per cent were prepubescent, 10 per cent pubescent, and 
84 per cent postpubescent; of all girls in those grades 2 per 
cent were prepubescent, 5 per cent pubescent, and 93 per 
cent postpubescent; of all pupils in those grades 4 per cent 
were prepubescent, 7 per cent pubescent, and 89 per cent 
postpubescent. 

While these figures can apply with exactness to one city 
only, it is quite probable that they would hold true approxi- 
mately for the majority of school systems. A number of city 
school systems examined in the same way indicate similar 
conditions. Certainly it is true that no simple means can be 



S« PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

found to relate the organization of the school system to the 
complexities found in the phenomena of puberty. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. How do differences between boys and girls in the rates of physical 

development affect the problem of coeducation? 
i. What administrative problems would be affected by the classification 

of pupils according to physiological age? How would they be affectetl? 
S. What organs and parts of the body show increased rates of development 

at adolescence? Which do not? Can any one age be set to cover all 

cases? (Cf. Hall, G. S., Adolescence, vol. i.) 

4. Show how growth in height or weight may affect mental traits by caus- 
ing changes in environmental (social) conditions. 

5. Compare any two boys or any two girls of approximately the same 
age (eg-, between 14.0 and 15.0) and note all the differences in phys- 
ical traits you can. Do any of the observed differences cause differ- 
ences in the treatment of them by other people? 

6. Reduce the age-grade distribution table of any secondary school to 
terms of per cents and note the variability. 

7. Arrange about one hundred boys or girls of any secondary school grade 
in the order of their scholastic records (marks): arrange them in the 
order of their ages: arrange them in the order of their heights or 
weights. How do the three arrangements compare? 

8. Apply the tables of Crampton (Table XI) and of Baldwin (Table XIII) 
to the age-grade distribution of any school system. Compare with the 
tables given for Paterson. (Cf. Tables XV-XVIII.) 

9. Compare boys of the same chronological age (reckoned within a six- 
months range) but in different school grades, as to their physical devel- 
opment (height, weight, etc.). Do the same for girls. 

10. Compare the boys who leave school during the first year of the second- 
ary school with those who remain, as to height, weight, etc. 

' SELECTED REFERENCES 

Baldwin, B. T., Physical Grmrth and School Progress, Bureau of Education, 
Bulletin (1914), no. 10. Bibliography of 336 titles. 

Baldwin, B. T., " A Measuring Scale for Physical Grov^ih and Physio- 
logical Age," Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of 
Education, part i, pp. 11-M. ."^, '^^^ it 

Baldwin, B. T., "The Normal Child: Its Physical Growth and MenUl 
Development," Popular Science Monthly, vol. lxxxv, pp. 559 jf. 

Boas. F., "On Dr. William Townsend Porter's Investigation of the Growth 
of School Children of St. Louis," Science, vol. i, pp. 225-30. 



PHYSICAL TILUTS OF TIIE PUPIL 83 

Boas, F., "Growth of S<hool rhildrcn," Sciencf, vol. xx, pp. 851-52. 

Htius, F., "(irowlh of Aniorican ChiKirtn," Report oj the I'niud StaUs 
Commissioner of Education (1806-97), vol. ii, pp. 1541-59. • 

Burk, F., "(irowthof CliiKirt'n, in Height ami Weij^ht," American Journal 
of Pitychology, vol. ix, pp. £,53-3^6. HihUo^Tnphy. 

Burnham, W. H., "The Study of Adolescence," Pedagogical Seminary, vol. 
I, pp. 174-95. 

Crampton, C. W., " Ph ysioloKioal Age — A Fundamental Principle." 
American Physical Education Rerirw, vol. xiii, pp. 141-54, 214-JJ7, 1268- 
83, 345-58. 

Crampton. C. W., " Anatomical or Physiological .\ge rcrsus Chronological 
Age," Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xv, pp. ^30-37. 

Cranii)ton, C. W., "The luHuence of Physiological Age on Scholarship," 
Psychological Clinic, vol. i, pp. 115-20. 

De Busk, h. W., " The \ ital Index in Development, "> Pedagogical Seminary, 
vol. XXIV, pp. 1-18. 

Fo.ster, W. L., " Physiological Age as a Ba.sis for the Classification of Pupils 
Entering High Schools — Relation of Pubescence to Height," Psycho- 
logical Clinic, vol. iv, pp. 83-88. 

•Gilliert, J. A., " Researches on the Mental and Physical Development of 
School Children," Studies from the Yaie Psychological Laboratory, vol. ii, 
pp. 40-100. 

Hall, G, S., Adolescence. 

Hartwell, E. M., "Reports on Physical Training in the Boston Public 
Schools," Boston School Committee Report, 1894-05, pp. 181-200. 

King, I., The High School Age, especially chapter ii. 

King, I., "Physiological Age and School Standing," Psychological Clinic, 
vol. VI. pp. 222-29. 

McDonald, A., " E.xperimental Study of Children," Report of the United 
States Commissioner of Education (1807-98), vol. i, pp. 985-1204. 

Porter, \V. T.. " (Jrowth of School Children," Report of the Academy of Sci- 
ence of St. Louis, vol. VI. pp. 263-380. 

Porter, W. T., " The Physical Basis of Precocity and Dullness." Transac- 
tions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, vol. vi, pp. 161-81. 

Smedley, F. W., Report of the Development of Child Study and Pedagogic 
Investigation of the Chicago Public Schools, vol. ii, pp. 10-48. 

Stewart. S. F., " A Study of Physical Growth and School Standing of Boys," 
Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. vii. pp. 414-26. 

Terman. L. M.. The Hygiene of the School Child, pp. lS-71. 

West. G. M., "Observation of the Relation of Physical Development to 
the Intellectual Ability Made on the School Children of Toronto, Can- 
ada," Science, vol. iv, pp. 156-59. 



•CHAPTER II 

THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL PUPIL: MENTAL TIL\ITS 

9. Secondary education and the development of mental 
traits. WTiile education is fundamentally and primarily 
conditioned by physical traits of the pupils, secondary edu- 
cation is more directly and immediately concerned for the 
most part with mental traits. Predominantly it is a process 
of producing, directing, or preventing changes in the neurone 
connections which control and determine mental traits. It 
follows, therefore, that the greater is our knowledge of men- 
tal traits and the nature of their development, the more 
intelligently and eflSciently can the process of education he 
conducted. As was suggested in the previous chapter our 
knowledge of physical traits and the nature of their develop- 
ment is very inadequate. Even less adequate and reliable is 
our knowledge of mental traits. Indeed, it may be said that 
no single psychological trait has ever been adequately 
measured and that the most painstaking investigations have 
failed to afford evidence which is entirely satisfactory. 
Nevertheless such evidence as we have suggests certain 
general tendencies which it is our duty to recognize until 
further investigation either confirms or invalidates. An 
analysis of all the mental traits involved in secondary edu- 
cation lies far beyond the scope of this book and in fact far 
beyond the bounds of available knowledge. All that can be 
attempted here is a brief consideration of a few fundamental 
traits and of certain problems of great importance for 
secondary education. The chapter will deal: (I) with the 
development of mental traits with age; (II) with the order 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 35 

of the development of mental traits; (III) with the relation 
of adolescence to the development of mental traits. 

As in the consideration of the development of physical 
traits in the preceding chapter the reader should be warned 
against certain misconceptions and misinterpretations. He 
should be warned that the statistical data presen' lust 
be considered as indicative of general tendencies rathei than 
as exact and conclusive evidence as to details. He should 
remember that mental traits are highly susceptible to the 
influence of training and hence that in every case such 
measurements as those presented indicate the status of a 
mental trait due both to inner growth determined by nature 
and to training through exercise, so that it is impossible to 
separate the two factors of nature and nurture and the status 
indicated represents an actual but not a necessary condi- 
tion. Finally it must be remembered that where statistical 
data are presented one must always keep in mind the dan- 
gers of drawing conclusions from a relatively small number 
of cases or of interpreting as normal a status determined 
from the measurement of a select group. j^ 

I. The Development of Mental Traits with Age 

10. The development of mental traits with age. It is an 
extremely difficult task to determine the status of any men- 
tal trait at any given age in such a way as to measure the 
effect of maturity or inborn tendencies alone, and eliminate 
the measurement of the influence of training or the environ- 
ment. Commonly the status of any mental trait at any 
time represents the combined effect of inborn tendencies 
and of training so that it is practically impossible to iso- 
late the effect of either influence. For that reason it is best 
to consider first the character of the development of mental 
traits which are, perhaps, likely to be affected least by spe- 



Se PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

cial training. For this purpose we may consider the results 
of Gilbert's measurement of children of different ages ^ with 
respect to their capacity to discriminate differences in weight 
and their capacity to react to a given sensory stimulus. 

Table XIX. Number of Grams Difference required in order 

THAT THE MeDIAN ChILD SHOULD BE ABLE TO PERCEIVE THE 

Differences between Weights. Decrease in the Amounts 
OF Difference Necessary denotes Increase est Ability.* 





Age in years 




6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


u 


15 


16 


17 


Grams: Boys 
Girls 
Both. 


13.0 
16.8 
14.8 


13.2 
13.2 
13.6 


12.2 
11.0 
11.4 


10.2 
10.0 
10.0 


8.6 
9.2 
8.8 


10.2 
7.6 
8.6 


7.6 
7.6 

7.2 


6.0 
5.6 
6.4 


5.2 
7.2 
5.6 


6.2 
7.2 
6.8 


6.0 
6.8 
6.6 


6.0 
6.4 
6.8 



Table XX. Number of Thousandths of a Second between 
THE Movement of a Disk and the making of a Contact by a 
Child who was instructed to press down a Key as soon as 

HE SAW THE DiSK MOVE: MeDIAN TiME. DECREASE IN THE 

Record indicates Increase in Ability.* 





Age in years 




6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


IS 


13 


u 


15 


16 


17 


Time: Boys 
Girls 
Both 


282 
295 
295 


267 
315 
292 


245 
260 
262 


243 

255 
250 


210 

225 
215 


185 
206 
195 


178 
198 
187 


178 
205 

187 


180 
187 
180 


167 
189 

172 


147 
172 
155 


147 
163 
156 



* Gilbert, J. A., Researches on the Mental and Physical Development of School Children, 
Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory, vol. ii, pp. 40-100; reproduced by Thorn- 
dike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. iii, pp. 273-74. Those not familiar with the term 
median may without serious error interpret it as a measure of the central tendency some- 
what similar to the average. 

The general tendency of the abihties measured to increase 
with age is obvious. Apparently ability in speed of reaction 
increases constantly from the age of six to the age of seven- 
teen, and possibly later. Ability to discriminate differences 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 



37 



in weight increases continuously until the age of thirteen 
or fourteen, where the apparent hmit of improvement with- 
out special practice is approached. Again the reader should 
be warned that the character of the data does not warrant 
more than the most general conclusions and hmits interpre- 
tation except with regard to general tendencies — possibly 
even there. The particular facts to be noted from such tables 
are that, in so far as the data are reliable, they indicate that 
the traits measured tend to increase with age as the result 
of inner growth and a certain amount of training, and that 
differences in the rate of development and in the duration of 
the process of development vary wdth different mental traits 
until the limits of capacity are approached. 

More complex and more susceptible to the influences of 
practice and training are the mental traits involved in asso- 
ciation and substitution. The results of certain investiga- 
tions designed to measure abihties in those traits are pre- 
sented in the following table: 

Table XXI. The Development of Capacity in Association 
AND Substitution (Pyle)* 



a. Part-whole association: 

Average ( Boys , 

record ( Girls , 

b. Genus-species association: 

Average ( Boys 

record { Girls 

e. Opposites association: 

Average ( Boys 

record \ Girls , 

d. Digit-symbol substitution: 

Average ( Boys , 

record { Girls 

e. Symbol-digit substitution: 

Average ( Boys , 

record ( Girls 











Age in 


years 






8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


U 


15 


16 


17 


5.5 

4.6 


6.5 
6.9 


7.3 

7.8 


8.9 
10.0 


8.9 
10.0 


11.1 
10.8 


12.2 
12.5 


14.8 
14.0 


15.9 
16.9 


15.8 
16.2 


4.6 
5.5 


5.7 
5.4 


6.5 

7.8 


7.2 
8.2 


7.1 
9.3 


10.0 
9.5 


10.5 
11.8 


11.1 
14.0 


15.2 
16.4 


14.0 
16.0 


9.0 
8.0 


8.4 
7.6 


7.5 
10.9 


10.9 
11.2 


11.5 
13.9 


14.5 
14.9 


14.6 
17.4 


16.0 
17.3 


18.6 
19.3 


17.6 
21.4 


10.3 
13.0 


12.6 
15.7 


15.4 
18.8 


16.3 
18.5 


19.1 

22.7 


22.6 
23.4 


21.1 
26.8 


24.7 
26.8 


24.8 
27.5 


23.8 
28.5 


10.0 
10.9 


13.2 
16.0 


16.5 
19.9 


17.7 
19.6 


19.3 
23.1 


20.7 
26.6 


23.3 
27.4 


25.8 
29.7 


27.8 
29.1 


26.1 
32.0 



18 



19.3 
19.7 

17.3 
18.3 

22.4 
23.4 

28.7 
25.9 

28.0 
33.1 



* The figures in this table represent the results of Pyle's investigations. For conven- 
ience the figures were taken from Whipple, G. M., Manual of Mental and Physical TestSt 
part II, pp. 75, 78, 82, 139, 140. 



38 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

• In this table it is to be noted that here again we find 
development of the various mental traits with age and differ- 
ences in the rates of development as well as in the dates 
when the limits of improvement begin to be approached. 
It is, of course, obvious that practice and training exert 
great influence on such traits as are involved in the processes 
of association. 

Measurement of the development of various memories 
with age indicate much the same general tendencies as those 
suggested by the measurements of various forms of associa- 
tion and substitution. This appears from figures which 
represent the results of a number of investigations. 

Table XXII. The Development of Various Memories 

WITH Age* 





Age in years 




8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


U 


15 

7.7 


16 
8.0 


17 
8.0 


18 


a. Memory span for Di^ts: t 


6.6 


6.7 


6.8 


7.2 


7.4 


7.3 


7.3 


8.0 


b. Memory concrete words: j 
























Average ( Boys 

record 1 Girls 


31.2 


32.4 


35.8 


37.7 


37.7 


38.3 


40.0 


40.2 


43.4 


45.7 


49.0 


32.9 


32.7 


39.6 


37.7 


38.7 


40.4 


44.2 


42.0 


42.5 


40.5 


52.0 


c. Memory abstract words:** 
























Average ( Boys 

record ( Girls 


22.9 


26.3 


26.8 


31.7 


31.0 


32.4 


37.3 


34.1 


40.0 


41.1 


40.8 


20.5 


24.0 


31.0 


31.8 


34.0 


36.0 


39.0 


37.8 


41.0 


37.0 


49.0 


d. Memory related words :tt 
























Average ( Boys 

record \ Girls 


13.0 


14.0 


15.0 


15.0 


16.4 


16.5 


16.9 


16.0 


17.0 




. ■ • 


13.0 


14.0 


15.3 


16.5 


16.0 


17.0 


17.5 


17.5 


17.8 




• • • 


e. Memory unrelated words :$$ 
























Average ( Boys 

record ( Girls 


11.1 


12.2 


12.2 


12.5 


12.8 


13.5 


13.7 


13.7 


14.0 


. . . 


. • • 


11.5 


12.4 


14.4 


14.3 


14.0 


13.5 


14.0 


14.0 


14.5 




■ • * 


/. Memory ideas :§ 
























Average ( Boys 

record \ Girls 


24.3 


28.7 


30.0 


32.9 


35.1 


36.8 


36.1 


36.5 


34.4 


34.6 


36.9 


28.5 


31.0 


33.5 


36.4 


38.1 


38.5 


39.0 


39.1 


37.3 


36.6 


37.8 



* The figures in this table were taken from Whipple, G. M., Manual of Mental and 
Physical Tests, part ii, who reproduced them from works and reports of the investigators 
cited. For the original data see the references given by Whipple, op. cit. 

t Whipple, op. cit., p. 172. J Ibid., p. 173. ** Ibid., p. 174. 

tt Ibid., p. 188. tX ibid., p. 188. § Ibid., p. 211. 



These figures indicate a general growth of memories with 
age in most instances continuing through the period of school 
life. Summarizing the matter considered in this section we 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 89 

are probably safe in holding (1) that in general mental traits 
improve in efficiency throughout the period of elementary 
and secondary education; (2) that the rate of improvement 
with age varies for the different mental traits; (3) that the 
limits of improvement vary; (4) that there is no evidence 
that any given status once attained is diminished, except 
in so far as being in part due to practice and training, deteri- 
oration may take place because of the discontinuance of 
practice or a change in training. 



II. The Order of the Development of Mental 

Traits 

II. Theories of the development of mental traits. Serious 
consequences for secondary education depend on the theory 
which is followed concerning the order of the development 
of various mental traits. Two conflicting theories are found. 
One theory postulates that certain mental processes, e.g., 
memory, begin their development earlier, develop more 
rapidly, and approach their maximal development earlier 
than other mental traits, e.g., reasoning; sometimes further 
assuming that once the maximum stage of development is 
reached a period of deterioration sets in. As a consequence 
it is sometimes maintained that emphasis should be placed 
on special mental processes at particular ages or stages of 
development, e.g., that sense perception and sensory dis- 
crimination should be emphasized in the education of young 
children, that education before the age of twelve should em- 
phasize memory and drill, and that reasoning should be re- 
served for emphasis at adolescence in the secondary school. 
For convenience we may term this a Theory of Serial or 
Periodic Development. The second theory assumes that, ex- 
cept as affected by exercise and training (factors which may 
be controlled extensively), the fundamental mental processes 



40 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

develop gradually, continuously, and in a relative degree 
concomitantly, if not from birth, certainly from the begin- 
ning of education in the school, until their maxima are 
approached; and, further, that deterioration does not nec- 
essarily set in until an age much later than the limit of 
school life. Consequently on the basis of this theory it is 
maintained that there are no periods in school education 
when training in certain mental processes should be em- 
phasized to the minimizing or neglect of others. For con- 
venience this may be called a Theory of Concomitant De- 
velopment, 

A diagrammatic presentation may illustrate more clearly 
the difference between the two theories: 



Theory of 

Serial or 
Periodic 

Development . 
Theory of 
Concomitant 



Development > 



V -< 



r Trait A 
Trait B 
Trait C 

r Trait A 
Trait B 
Trait C 



Earlier age Later age 



For examples, sensory discrimination may be represented 
by Trait A, certain forms of memory by Trait B, and certain 
forms of reasoning by Trait C. 

12. The theory of serial development. From the begin- 
ning of formal education the theory has always been promi- 
nent that certain ages were especially appropriate for the 
training and utilization of different mental processes, on 
the basis of the supposed superiority of those mental traits 
at different periods. Likewise it has been supposed that 
training in and use of certain mental processes should be 
deferred until the periods when their delayed operation 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 41 

should begin. Typical of such a theory from one point of 
view was that of Rosenkrantz who 

divides the life of the child iato an intuitive, an imaginative, and 
a logical epoch. During the first of these periods the appeal should 
be to the senses. Later imagination and memory are called into 
play, and the entire movement should culminate in stirring up the 
logical processes.^ 

A demarcation somewhat similar, though by no means so 
rigid, is made by Bagley: 

The factor that operates most effectively in the transition period 
(ages six to eight) is vivid portrayal dealing almost exclusively with 
concrete experiences. Repetition is frequently in order, provided 
that it involves a minimum of strain and fatigue. Logical reasoning 
is entirely out of place, and symbols must not be used apart from 
a direct connection with the concrete experiences for which they 
stand. ... In the formative period (ages eight to tv/elve), repeti- 
tion is the watchword, but it should be strongly supplemented by 
vivid portrayal and, in the later stages, by the simpler operations 
of logical reasoning. Symbols should still be closely associated with 
the concrete, but there is some place for the operation of verbal 
memory through repetition, even if the underlying conceptions 
have not been thoroughly traced out. . . . Organization of logical 
reasoning holds undisputed sway in the adolescent stage (ages 
twelve to eighteen). . . . Moral culture is now entirely of the 
rational type.^ 

The basis of this theory would appear to be found in the 
relation which exists between the different mental processes 
and the order of their operation with reference to any given 
material. If we consider the mental processes in the order 
of the simplest and most fundamental to the most complex, 
e.g., sensation, perception, imagery, association and disso- 

* Henderson, E. N., Textbook in the Princivles of Education, p. 171. 
Quoted with the permission of the publishers. The Macmillan Company. 

2 Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, pp. 201-202 et antea. Quoted 
with the permission of the publishers, The Macmillan Company. 



42 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ciation, memory, reasoning, combinations of processes, it is 
recognized that the efficient operation of the latter must b^ 
conditioned by the operation of the former processes on 
which they depend. Association cannot take place without 
perception and imagery; memory depends on association; 
reasoning depends on association and dissociation; ordinary 
learning processes depend on a combination of all mental 
processes. In a sense, therefore, the operation of the more 
complex mental processes must follow the operation of the 
more simple processes. This is true, however, with respect 
to the application of those processes to specific material and 
specific situations only; it cannot be considered to mean that 
complex mental processes applied to materials of every sort 
and to every situation must wait on the perfection of the 
operation of the simpler processes as applied to all materials 
and to all situations, or to mean that the simpler processes 
can be perfected *' in general." Such an assumption as that 
commonly made involves a theory of general faculties which 
is quite contrary to modern psychology. The point is well 
taken by Henderson in commenting on the theory of Rosen- 
krantz : 

It involves the assumption that the faculties are distinct, and 
that they develop independently. The child, it is assumed, first 
observes without remembering or imagining to any great extent. 
He thus develops a power of observation that may be used in any 
field without reference to subject-matter. Later other powers 
appear, and as soon as one emerges a new form of instruction be- 
comes possible. It is absurd to reason with a child who has not yet 
attained to the logical period, or to expect him to remember and 
imagine while he is still in the intuitive stage. Moreover, when 
once children have reached the rational age, it is supposed that they 
will be logical on any subject. All these assumptions are faulty. 
As a matter of fact, a child is usually in the intuitive epoch in 
respect to some subjects and in the logical as regards others. The 
analysis of the mental processes does not, as we now realize, mean 
the discovery of independent faculties, but rather the revelation 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 4S 

of the forms through which any given content must pass as the 
mind reflects upon it and utilizes it in new conditions. As a guide 
lo the method by which new material must be presented, the idea 
of a psychological order of development is of great value. But as a 
clue to the way in which a subject must be taught to a child of a 
certain age, no matter what his previous experience with that 
material may have been, it is, to say the least, to be used with 
caution. Common sense, indeed, tells us that we cannot exp)ect 
from young children certain complicated pieces of reasoning, based 
on comprehensive experience and a large number of well-mastered 
concepts. Nevertheless, it is astonishing what seemingly impossible 
feats such children will perform, provided the ground is properly 
prepared. Mathematical analysis impossible to untrained though 
intelligent adults can be carried on by children in the primary 
grades.^ 

13. The theory of concomitant development. Opposed to 
the theory of serial or periodic development is the theory of 
concomitant development of mental processes. This theory 
postulates that with respect to the fundamental psychologi- 
cal processes ^ the mode of their operation is the same from 
birth to death, that their relative efficiency at any given 
period is determined by the amount of their exercise and the 
character of the materials on which they are exercised, and 
that development of mental traits is to be measured not 
with reference to general faculties but with reference to 
specific material. The theory may be illustrated in the views 
of representative psychologists and educators, Dewey's 
view may be seen from the following quotations : 

The method that emphasizes the psychological and natural, but 
yet fails to see what an important part of the natural tendencies is 
constituted at every period by growth of curiosity, inference, and 
the desire to test, cannot secure a natural development. In natural 
growth each successive stage of activity prepares unccnsciously, 

^ Henderson, E. N., Textbook in the Principles of Education, pp. 171-72, 
Quoted with the permission of the publishers, The Macmillan Company, 
2 For the time being excluding Instincts, interests, etc. 



44 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAEY EDUCATION ^ 



y 



but thoroughly, the conditions for the manifestation of the next 
stage — as in the cycle of a plant's growth. There is no ground 
for assuming that "thinking" is a special, isolated natural tendency 
that will bloom inevitably in due season simply because various 
sense and motor activities have been freely manifested before; or 
because observation, memory, imagination, and manual skill have 
been previously exercised without thought. Only when thinking 
is constantly employed in using the senses and muscles for the 
guidance and application of observations and movements, is the 
way prepared for subsequent higher types of thinking. 

At present the notion is current that childhood is almost entirely 
unreflective — a period of mere sensory, motor, and memory 
development, while adolescence suddenly brings the manifesta- 
tions of thought and reason. 

Adolescence is not, however, a synonym for magic. Doubtless 
youth should bring with it an enlargement of the horizon of child- 
hood, a susceptibility to larger concerns and issues, a more generous 
and a more general standpoint toward nature and social life. This 
development affords an opportunity for thinking of a more compre- 
hensive and abstract type than has previously obtained. But think- 
ing itself remains just what it has been all the time: a matter of 
following up and testing conclusions suggested by the facts and 
events of life. Thinking begins as soon as the baby who has lost 
the ball that he is playing with begins to foresee the possibility of 
something not yet existing — its recovery; and begins to forecast 
steps toward the realization of this possibility, and, by experimen- 
tation, to guide his acts by his ideas and thereby also to test the 
ideas. Only by making the most of the thought factor, already 
active in the experience of childhood, is there any promise or war- 
rant for the emergence of superior reflective power at adolescence, 
or at any later period.^ 

I have come to believe that reasoning itself, the capacity or 
ability to reason (or that bundle of minor abilities of which reason- 
ing consists), is not capable of being improved with growing years, 
or, at least, its improvement is not sujfficiently marked to be worth 
mentioning. Professor James in his Psychology speaks in this way 
about organic memory — "the power to retain." Later investiga- 
tions have led to some modifications of his statement, but it is 

1 Dewey, J., How We Think, pp. 65-66. Quoted with the permission of 
the publishers, D. C Heath & Co. 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 45 

generally admitted that the power to improve radical or funda- 
mental memory is slight.^ 

There are different objects to think about, and different purposes 
for which to think, because children and grown-ups have different 
kinds of acts to j)erform — different lines of occupation, in short. 
The adult has obviously more complicated activities to carry on; 
he has concerns that continue over longer stretches of time so that 
more details enter in, and results are postponed. Hence he must 
constantly look ahead. The process of thinking is essentially the 
same for little children; but there is such a difference in the materi- 
als with which the thinking is done, and the ends for the sake of 
which it is carried on, that the impression is easily created that the 
thinking itself is of a radically different order. ^ 

Much the same general viewpoint is that of Thorndike: 

Now about these mental states (feelings of relationship, meaning, 
judgments, the three sorts of mental stuff that play the great roles 
in rational thinking) in children we may say that by the school 
age, and in fact long before then, they are all present. The six- 
year-old has all the elementary feelings involved in reasoning. The 
change which occurs is not the appearance of these feelings, but 
their increase in number and definiteness and a change in the 
manner of their use. The constant increase in general experience 
of things, and more particularly in increase in definite study of 
things due to educational influences, forces children to know more 
relationships between things just as it does to know more things. 
More and more minute and more comprehensive relationships are 
grasped. We have thus all stages, from the baby who feels that his 
father is not like his mother, that two pieces of candy are more than 
one, to the scientist who notes the similarity between man and the 
older monkeys or relates the phenomena of gravitation to elec- 
trical charges of ions.^ 

. . . From these facts it is clear that, as regards the mechanics 
of the reasoning process, children differ from adults only as adults 
differ among themselves. Not some mysterious inner transforma- 

1 Dewey, J., "Reasoning in Early Childhood," Teachers College Record^ 
Vol. XV, no. 1, p. 9. 

2 Ibid., p. 10. 

* Thorndike, E. L., Notes on Child Study (2d edition), pp. 92-93. 



46 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tion, but the enlargement and refinement of experience, the forma- 
tion of systems and suitable ideas, the knowledge of aspects or ele- 
ments of things essential to different purposes, the acquisition and 
habitual use of systematic methods of forming and testing con- 
clusions, the growth of skepticism concerning the similarity of 
things alike in some respects, the definition of terms and the crystal- 
lization of experiences into judgments, are what make the rational 
man out of the blundering child. ^ 

^ From these typical views it is clear that the theory in- 
volved concerning the fundamental mental processes is one 
which assumes that the development of efficiency is more 
dependent on growth as affected by experience and training 
than on a serial development of capacities determined by 
the forces of inner growth, and that all the mental processes 
are so interrelated and interdependent that serial or periodic 
development is out of the question. 

14. An evaluation of the theories of development. The 
burden of evidence would appear to be in favor of the theory 
of interdependent or concomitant development, especially 
with reference to ordinary mental processes fundamental 
to learning. Evidence from theoretic psychology, from ex- 
perimental measurement, and from empirical knowledge 
gained through ordinary experience inside and outside the 
school, all point toward the same conclusion — that the fun- 
damental mental processes begin with the early years and 
continue throughout life without change as far as the mode 
of their operation is concerned. Development is predomi- 
nantly a matter of the accumulation of experiences which 
affect all the fundamental processes. The laws of mental 
life point unmistakably to an interdependence of the mental 
processes which precludes any conception of a development 
of any fundamental process without a possible, commonly 
a necessary, corresponding modification of those by which 

1 Thorndike, E. L., Notes on Child Study (2d edition), p. 97. 



^ 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 47 

its development is conditioned and those whose develop- 
ment is conditioned by it. The stimulus of life's activities, 
including those of formal education, alone determine whether 
or not any given mental process shall be exercised and that 
stimulus affects all mental processes at all ages. 

If we turn from the general laws of psychology to the re- 
sults of experimental investigation of the mental processes 
employed ^by children of different ages the evidence points 
in the same direction. Such measurements as those con- 
sidered in Tables XIX to XXII indicate that the processes 
or traits considered were to be found in some degree in 
children of all ages within the period of school life. This is 
clearly shown also by the Courtis Tests and by Bonser*s 
studies.^ It is also true of more general mental operations: 

The ideas of the child are largely new, while those of the adult 
are oftener old or connected with old ideas; hence the adult's 
mental grasp is greater chiefly because of knowledge and experi- 
ence. The effect of knowledge on mental grasp is well shown by 
a series of experiments in which first-grade children and adults 
reproduce ordinary letters, Greek letters, and familiar sentences. 
The adults have little advantage m. the case of Greek letters, a 
great deal ia ordinary letters, and are almost infinitely better in 
reproducing the letters making a sentence. Evidently the differ- 
ence is due to greater familiarity and increased mental grasp. ^ 

If the evidence from the general laws of mental life and 
the evidence from experimental investigation were wanting, 
ordinary empirical evidence should be sufficient to guard us 
against the assumption that young children remember bet- 
ter than older children or that the processes of reasoning do 
not afford educational opportunity to any considerable ex- 
tent until the dawn of adolescence. All forms of the mental 

1 Bonser, F. G., The Reasoning Abilities of Children of the Fourth, Fifth 
'^nd Sixth School Grades. 

2 Kirkpatrick, E. A., Fundamentals of Child Study, p. 255. Quoted with* 
the permission of the publishers, The Macmillan Company. 



48 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

processes are found in the activities of children throughout 
the school period. Nor is it true that during the early pe- 
riods concrete experience alone forms the stuff of mental life 
and that symbolic and abstract materials are either the sole 
materials appropriate to later school life or confined to the 
later periods. Symbolic imagery of the most common type, 
i.e., letters, words, arithmetical symbols, etc., are employed 
almost at the very beginning of the child's school life and 
play a most prominent part throughout. Abstract thinking 
of a high order may be found in operation in any grade of 
the school. The extent to which one may rely in teaching on 
the more complex mental processes is determined by the 
amount of previous experience rather than by the chrono- 
logical age reached by the pupils. 

There is a dangerous tendency manifest in some quarters 
to assume that a close analogy is warranted between the fun- 
damental mental processes and instincts and to base a theory 
of deferred development and transitory quality for the com- 
mon mental processes on the assumption of such character- 
istics for instincts. While the majority of instincts, e.g., 
fear, curiosity, imitation, etc., are manifest in children from 
birth, certain other instincts, e.g., the sex instincts, are con- 
ceived to be delayed until about the stage of puberty. Like- 
wise it is commonly held that certain instincts, e.g., the 
" collecting instinct," tend to be transitory, manifesting a 
period of waxing, a period of ascendency, and a period of 
waniDg. Whether or not such characteristics are of frequent 
occurrence with reference to instincts, there is little ground 
for assuming like phenomena to be characteristic of the 
fundamental mental processes of sense-perception, memory, 
reasoning, and the like. 

If this is the case with James's temperate account, what shall 
we say of those who describe the imier growth of man's instincts 
and capacities altogether as a series of tendencies, appearing, wait- 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 49 

ing, lasting a brief space and vanishing unless then and there fixed 
as habits — like the ripening of fruits which soon decay unless pre- 
served by the housewivery of habits, or like a procession of candi- 
dates which pass through an office, disappearing for good and all 
unless enlisted at the time and drilled by some recruiting officer 
of the mind. Such a sharp definition of the rise and fall of original 
tendencies in a serial order of stages or epochs seems to me to be a 
gross exaggeration, corresponding only here and there to the actual 
progress of inner development.^ 

It is doubtful, indeed, that delay in appearance or tran- 
sitoriness is a law of any extensive application with refer- 
ence to instincts (though perhaps quite the reverse is true 
with respect to specific manifestations in the form of special 
interests which are highly susceptible to the influence of 
the environment and special training). With respect to the 
fundamental mental processes evidence is wanting that it 
can apply at all. 

15. Implications for secondary education. Almost every 
phase of the work of the secondary school is affected to a 
greater or less extent by the theory accepted concerning the 
order and rate of mental development. Certain implications 
may be briefly considered here. 

(1) Affecting organization and administration: The articu- 
lation between elementary education and secondary educa- 
tion has frequently been based in part on the theory that 
the mental development of children is serial and periodic 
and that important differences between children of earlier 
and later ages justify a rather sharp distinction between 
elementary and secondary education. This theory is always 
more or less associated with certain theories of adolescence 
in relation to secondary education which will be considered 
at greater length in following sections. In anticipation, how- 

1 Thomdike, E. L., The Original Nature of Man, pp. 266-67. Quoted 
with the permission of the publishers, Teachers College Bureau of Publica- 
tions. 



50 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ever, two quotations may be given to illustrate the general 
attitude. Thus Bagley: 

From these facts (those of mental changes at adolescence), it 
follows that the methods of moral culture must be transformed 
almost in a day. Just as in mental training "the drill and mechan- 
ism of the previous period must be relaxed," so, in moral training, 
the arbitrary and authoritative rulings that have hitherto been the 
mainstay must now give place to reason.^ 

In a similar vein writes Davis: 

American educational work wrongly organized. — Again the pres- 
ent mode of organizing and administering educational work in 
America is psychologically ill-groimded. The adolescent period 
usually begins at about the age of twelve years. With the dawn of 
this new period come most notable changes in physical form, 
structure, and function and most decided concomitant psycho- 
logical changes. At this period self-consciousness is born. The 
interests that formerly held dominaut sway are cast aside. New 
motives stir, new aspirations fire, new goals beckon. Conscious 
logical reason begins to 'proclaim itself. The mind is no longer satisfied 
with mere empirical facts, but it demands that the facts be presented in 
their essential relations. ... To enforce unnatural restraints upon 
an adolescent is to deaden his sensibilities, stifle his intellectual and 
his social enthusiasm, and atrophy his powers. To keep him under 
the restrictive and arbitrary discipline of the ordinary elementary 
school is to sin against nature and to commit an offence against 
the laws of social well-being. To employ with him the methods of 
instruction and training of the elementary school is to provoke 
him to truancy, encourage him to evade school work, and impel 
him to forsake school duties altogether. The beginning of adoles- 
cence is most emphatically the beginning of the period of secondary 
education. As our schools are organized and administered to-day 
this fact is ignored. ^ 

1 Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, p. 200. Italics by the present 
writer. Quoted with the permission of the publishers. The Macmillan 
Company. 

2 Davis, C. C, Principles and Plans for Reorganizing Secondary Educa- 
tion, pp. 69-70 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High School Education. Italics 
by the present writer. Quoted with the permission of the publishers, 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 



J 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 51 

Underlying such statements as those cited is a theory that 
elementary and secondary education can be distinguished on 
the basis of the " mental stages " of the children as deter- 
mined by the inner growth of certain mental traits, with 
particular reference to a sudden burst of the capacity to rea- 
son with an assumed sudden onset of adolescence. In con- 
trast with such a theory the theory of concomitant develop- 
ment of mental traits would justify no such sharp division 
between elementary and secondary education, but, on the 
contrary, emphasizes the importance of recognizing that 
there can be no sharp dividing line between the two and 
demands that the transition from elementary education to 
' secondary education be gradual and continuous. 

(^) Affecting subject-matter : A theory of the serial and 
periodic development of mental traits has frequently been 
made the basis of the assignment of various subjects of 
study to different parts of the school course, assigning to the 
earher years subjects of study which are conceived to de- 
pend for their mastery on more or less mechanical processes, 
especially motor ability and memory, and assigning to the 
later years those subjects of study which are conceived to 
demand reasoning ability. Thus it is frequently argued that 
subjects of study requiring motor skill are best acquired by 
children in the elementary school or in the early grades of 
the secondary school. Likewise it is argued that the study 
of foreign languages should be begun at about the age of 
twelve because of the demand which it makes on memory. 
So, also, it is claimed that subjects calling for aesthetic ap- 
preciation such as literature, and subjects calling for logical 
reasoning should be deferred and offered relatively late in 
the school course. Whatever other reasons may justify the 
location of subjects in various grades of the school, little jus- 
tification can be found for such arguments as may depend 
for their validity on an assumption that special mental pro- 



52 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAKY EDUCATION 

cesses are especially favorable at certain ages. Far more satis- 
factory is the theory that social economy and the character 
of specific training already given and acquired should be 
the criteria determining the values and positions of subjects 
of study in the school. As a matter of fact a subject of study 
which made no demand on perception, conception, imagery, 
memory, reasoning (if such should be conceived as a reality) 
could not be considered appropriate for education, and fail- 
ure to employ any of those processes in earlier education 
would probably be the best guarantee that that process 
would not be efficient at a later stage. 

(3) Affecting methods of teaching: Obviously the theory 
adopted with respect to the development of mental traits 
vitally concerns the methods to be employed in teaching any 
subject. According to the theory of serial or periodic de- 
velopment emphasis on the concrete or abstract, on memory 
or reasoning, is to be determined by the age of the pupil and 
without reference to the stage of his development with re- 
spect to the specific materials concerned. At a certain age 
teaching methods are to rely primarily on memory and to 
minimize dependence on reasoning. In the succeeding stage 
the process is to be reversed and inner growth alone is sup- 
posed to make possible extensive reliance on the pupil's 
ability to reason. The conception has vicious results, not 
only in that it assumes the possibility of the sudden aban- 
donment of habits of memorizing which have been fostered 
caref uUy in the earlier stage, and assumes the ready develop- 
ment of habits and ideals of reasoning, but also because it 
leads to an overemphasis on memorization in the earlier 
stages and a failure to give needed practice to reasoning with- 
out which it is impossible to find it effective at later stages. 
Only when proper exercise is given to the reasoning processes 
in connection with the simpler experiences of the earher 
stages is there any warrant for expecting their effective oper- 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 53 

atlon with the more complex experiences of the later period. 
In this connection it may be noted that when reasoning is 
neglected in the elementary school and emphasized in the 
high school the rather rapid development of capacity previ- 
ously discouraged may give the appearance of a sudden inner 
growth which is, however, but the natural expansion of a 
capacity previously neglected. 

As opposed to this theory, the theory of continuous and 
concomitant development demands that each mental trait 
receive due attention throughout the school course and that 
methods of teaching be adapted to utilize all the fundamental 
mental traits from the beginning. Obviously maturity here 
as elsewhere must be an important factor, but maturity 
should not be measured on the basis of a series of delayed 
developments of the different mental traits. 

(Jf.) Affecting discipline and treatment of the pupil: Ac- 
cording to the theory of serial or periodic development the 
treatment of pupils would be determined largely by the 
factor of age, postulating rather mechanical, submissive 
action by the pupils during the earlier stages and deferring 
appeals to reason until the later stages. According to the 
theory of continuous and concomitant development appeals 
to the reason of pupils are as appropriate at one age as at 
another, provided they are adapted to the specific stages of 
development and provided they are expressed in terms or 
actions which the pupils' previous experiences can interpret. 
In any event the transition from the rule of rules to the rule 
of reason must be gradual. 

III. Theories of the Influence of Adolescence on 
Development of Mental Traits 

i6. Theories of the influence of adolescence. Closely 
related to the problem considered above is the problem of 
4\ 



// 



.J 



54 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the influence of adolescence on the development of mental 
traits and its bearing on secondary education. In its most 
general form the problem may be stated as follows: Is the 
course of the development of mental traits such that there 
are periods of relatively rapid and relatively slow growth, or, 
is the process of development essentially continuous and 
gradual? In more special form as having direct bearing on 
secondary education the problem may be stated thus : Is the 
onset of puberty (the initial stage of adolescence) relatively 
sudden and abrupt, does its abrupt appearance entail sud- 
den marked changes in general physical development, and 
do abrupt and sudden changes in mental traits coincide with 
such physical changes, or, are all the mental phenomena 
which are supposed to accompany adolescence characterized 
by gradual maturing ? Two theories are found in psycho- 
logical and educational theory. One theory assumes that the 
development of mental traits at adolescence is relatively 
rapid and is characterized by sudden and relatively abrupt 
changes. It is commonly termed the Theory of Saltatory 
Development (Latin saltare = to leap, to proceed by leaps). 
The other theory assumes that development is essentially 
continuous and gradual, such fluctuations as occur merely 
representing the usual phenomena of a variable factor. This 
may be called the Theory of Gradual Development. The two 
theories may be roughly contrasted by diagrams. (Figure A.) 
17. The theory of saltatory development. The phenomena 
of puberty and adolescence have always been fraught with 
interest to students of education and particularly to students 
of secondary education. This interest always present has 
been stimulated to a high degree by the results of the child 
study movement of the past quarter century and especially 
by the publication of Hall 's monumental work on Ado- 
lescence in 1904. Subsequent to the publication of that book 
few treatments of adolescence, or of the development of 



MENTAL TRiUTS OF THE PUPIL 



55 



theory of 
Saltatory 

Development 



Ago 




Theory of 

Gradual 
Development 





^gjveisSi 


is^^ — : 


: 


<i^ 


\^ 


! i- s 


^^'^'^ 




! Early 


: Later : 


yT 


\ Child- 


: Adolos- 


: Adol03- : 


r Babyhood 


: hood 


: oonoe 


: oenco : 



Age 



8 12-14 

Figure A 



18 



25 



physical and mental traits with age, have been unaffected by 
the data which Hall presented and the theories which he set 
forth. Prominent among those theories was the theory of 
the saltatory development of mental traits at adolescence, 
and most treatments of that topic have been more or less 
colored by the tenets of Hall and his school. 

Representative opinions will illustrate the form which the 
theory of saltatory development takes among its advocates. 
Burnham states it thus: 

Physiological changes: Everybody is familiar with the more ob- 
vious changes that occur at this period. The reproductive organs 
increase in size, the larynx enlarges, the vocal cords become elon- 
gated, the volume of the heart is increased. . . . Probably equally 
important changes occur in the brain; for the shape of the head 
changes, and new intellectual and emotional activities of this 
period must be accompanied by the functioning of the cerebral 
centres that have lain dormant before. This is, moreover, a period 
of specially rapid growth in both sexes. 



56 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Psychological changes. The psychological changes at puberty are 
no less remarkable. There is a great influx of new sensations. The 
brain, aroused by these new stimuli, increases its activity. The 
psychic concomitant of this increased cerebral activity is mani- 
fested in a variety of ways. The adolescent mind is filled with 
hopes, dreams, tempestuous passions, and new ideas. Social and 
ethical impulses become dominant; egoism often gives place to 
altruism. Political or religious zeal sometimes become the main- 
spring of action. The reasoning powers come into use.^ 

Hall's theory of the development of physical and mental 
traits with adolescence is not so readily gained through a 
single quotation or a few quotations, as from the general 
tenor of his work. A few characteristic passages, however, 
will illustrate his theory: 

Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely 
human traits are now born. The qualities of body and soul that 
now emerge are far newer. The child comes from and harks back 
to a remoter past; the adolescent is neo-atavistic, and in him the 
later acquisitions of the race slowly become prepotent. Develop- 
ment is less gradual and more saltatory, suggestive of some ancient 
period of storm and stress when old moorings were broken and a 
higher level attained. The annual rate of growth in height, weight, 
and strength is increased and often doubled, and even more. Im- 
portant functions previously non-existent arise. Growth of parts 
and organs loses its former proportions, some permanently and 
some for a season. Some of these are stiU growing in old age and 
others are soon arrested and atrophy. The old moduli of dimen- 
sions become obsolete and old harmonies are broken. The range 
of individual differences and average errors in all physical measure- 
ments and aU psychic tests increases. Some linger long in the 
childish stage and advance late or slowly, while others push on 
with a sudden outburst of impulsion to early maturity. ^ 

• — . ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ . -«4 

1 Burnham, W- H., "The Study of Adolescence," Pedagogical Seminary, 
vol. I (1891), pp. 175-76. 

2 Hall, G. S., Adolescence, vol. i, p. xiii. Hall's statement that the range 
of individual differences in all physical measurements and psychic tests in- 
creases is open to contradiction. Of. Terman, L. M., The Measurement 
of Intelligence, p. 67. 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 57 

In adolescence, individualism is suddenly augmented and begins 
to sense its limits and its gradual subordination to the race which 
the Fates prescribe.^ 

At adolescence each of the senses undergoes certain character- 
istic changes of structure, function, or both. Interests change and 
with them the organs of apperception, so that aspects and elements 
different from those hitherto absorbing the complex but already 
familiar objects of sense become foci of attention. . . . One of the 
most important and comprehensive modifications is, that whereas 
most sense stimuli before this age tend strongly to provoke reflex 
reactions, after it these tend to be delayed or better organized, 
as if there were a marked increase of associative or central func- 
tions. Before, the projection system predominated, and stimuli, 
suggestion, and afferent processes generally passed more readily 
over to the efferent or motor tracts; but now we have increased 
cerebral irradiations, and there is a marked advance in the develop- 
ment of the long-circuiting functions of thought, deliberation, and 
reflection. 2 

Of all the changes normal at adolescence, none are more com- " 
prehensive and perhaps none are now more typical of the psychic 
transformation of this age than those that occur m the attitude 
toward the various aspects of nature. . . . The new life is first born 
in the heart, and is more or less unconscious, and among its first 
spontaneous creations are metaphors that may fade and be often 
recreated, so that language itself becomes fossil poetry. Allegory 
gives things a dual meaning; symbolism is now first possible, and 
a widening circle of objects and events acquire a new purport.^ 

At the dawn of adolescence this impulse to migrate or wander 
shows a great and sudden increase.^ 

But with the teens all this begins to be changed and many of 
these precepts (for previous education) must be gradually reversed. 
There is an outburst of growth that needs a large part of the total 
kinetic energy of the body. . . . The mind at times grows in leaps 
and bounds in a way that seems to defy the great enemy, fatigue, 
and yet when the teacher grows a little tiresome the pupil is tired 
in a moment.^ 

1 Hall, G. S., Adolescence, vol. n, p. 58. Quotations from Adolescence 
with the permission of the publishers, D. Appleton & Co. 

2 Ibid., vol. II, p. 2. 3 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 144^5. 
* Ibid.y vol. II, p. 377. ^ Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 453-64, 



BS PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Whether or not unqualified advocacy of the theory of 
saltatory development can be ascribed to Hall, certain it is 
that many educators and psychologists more or less in- 
fluenced by his work have adopted that theory without 
appreciable qualification. On no other theory could be justi- 
fied such extravagant expressions as the following: " At this 
period seK-consciousness is born. The interests that for- 
merly held dominant sway are cast aside. New motives stir, 
new aspirations fire, new goals beckon. Conscious logical 
reason begins to proclaim itseK." ^ " Mentally, then, as 
well as physically, adolescence is a new birth"; ^ etc. 

i8. The theory of gradual development. Opposed to the 
theory of saltatory development is the theory of gradual 
development which postulates that growth in the mental 
traits is essentially gradual. Again the form which this theory 
may be seen best from typical views. Thus Thorndike: 

I conclude, therefore, that the development of mental traits with 
age has not been and cannot be adequately measured by such 
studies as those quoted (Gilbert). To measure it we must repeat 
measurements upon the same individuals and for all purposes of 
inference preserve intact each of the individual changes. In con- 
nection with each of them account must be taken of the training 
which the individual in question has undergone. 

What measurements we do have may serve, however, to correct 
two errors of common opinion. The notion that the increases in 
ability due to a given amount of progress toward maturity are 
closely alike for all children, save the so-called "abnormally preco- 
cious" or "retarded," is false. The same fraction of the total inner 
development, from zero to adult ability, will produce very unequal 
results in different children. Inner growth acts differently, accord- 
ing to the original nature that is growing. 

The notion that maturity is the main factor in the differences 
found amongst school children, so that grading and methods of 

1 Davis, C. O., p. 69, of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High School Educa- 
tion. 

2 Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, p. 196. ^ 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 59 

teaching should be fitted closely to "stage of growth," is also false. 
It is by no means very hard to find seven-year-olds who can do 
intellectual work at which one in twenty seventeen-year-olds 
would fail.^ 

Two general questions concerning the time-relations of original 
tendencies may be discussed here because of their intrinsic impor- 
tance and their service in predisp>osing the student to a critical atti- 
tude in connection with the general literature of mental development 
in childhood. These questions concern the suddenness of the wax- 
ing of delayed tendencies and the frequency of transitory tendencies. 

It is a favorite dictum of superficial psychology and pedagogy 
that instincts lie entirely dormant and then spring into full strength 
within a few weeks. At a certain stage, we are told, such and such 
a tendency has its "nascent period" or ripening time. Three is the 
age for fear, six is the age for climbing, fifteen is the age for coopera- 
tiveness, and the like. The same doctrine is applied to the sup- 
posed "faculties" or very general capacities of the mind. Within 
a year or two around eight the child is said to change from a mere 
bundle of sensory capacities, to a child possessed of imagination; 
somewhere aromid thirteen another brief score of months brings 
his reasoning up from near zero to nearly full energy; a year or two 
somewhere in the teens creates altruism! 

These statements are almost certainly misleading. The one in- 
stinct whose appearance seems most like a dramatic rushing upon 
life's stage — • the sex instinct — is found upon careful study to be 
gradually maturing for years. The capacity for reasoning shows no 
signs by any tests as yet given of developing twice as much in any 
one year from five to twenty-five as in any other. In the cases 
where the differences between children of different ages may be 
taken roughly to measure the rate of inner growth of capacities, 
what data we have show nothing to justify the doctrine of sudden 
ripening in a serial order. ^ 

The few interests whose strength, period by period, have been 
more or less well measured, give no evidence of any sudden acces- 

1 Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. ni (1914), pp. 279-80. 
Quoted with the permission of the publishers. Teachers College Bureau of 
Publications. 

2 Thorndike, E. L., The Original Nature of Man, pp. 260-61. Quoted 
with the permission of the publishers, Teachers College Bureau of Publi- 
cations. 



60 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

sion of power. Thus collecting seems to increase in vigor gradually 
from before six to ten. The capacities of sensory discrimination, 
memory, observation and the like which have been measured in 
children at different ages, are of course in the conditions that they 
are at any age because of training as well as inner growth, and the 
facts concerning their rates of gain cannot be used at their face 
value in our argument. But so far as they do go, they give no sup- 
port to the theory of the sudden rise of inner tendencies. Indeed 
every tendency that has been subjected to anything like rigid scru- 
tiny seems to fit the word gradual rather than the word sudden in 
the rate of its maturing. ^ 

Briefly stated, Thorndike's theory may be considered 
essentially this: that development must be considered 
chiefly with reference to the individual and with less im- 
portance attached to group averages; that development is a 
matter of specific traits, not general ** faculties "; that the 
data accessible as regards both physical and mental develop- 
ment are at present very inadequate; that, such as the evi- 
dence is, it points toward continuous and gradual develop- 
ment rather than toward sudden transitions. These views 
essentially constitute the theory of gradual development. 

The general theory of continuous and gradual develop- 
ment is expressed by King as follows: 

When any period of life is set off for special study there is dan- 
ger of drawing a picture that is exaggerated and untrue to reality. 
This is especially the case with both childhood and youth. In our 
eagerness to state clearly the traits of the period with which we are 
concerned, we tend to draw lines of definite separation between 
what has come before and what comes after. This indeed has been 
a vice of all those who take up any part of a series of changes for 
particular study. . . . 

In just this same way the so-called periods of life from birth to 
maturity exist largely in the mind of the over-eager observer. The 
more we know about human nature, the more we are convinced 

1 Thorndike, E. L., The Original Nature of Man, pp. 262-63. Quoted 
with the permission of the publishers, Teachers College Bureau of Publi- 
cations. 



MENTAL TRAITS. OF THE PUPIL 61 

that development is a continuous process. The child is, it is true, 
different from the youth, and the youth from the man, but these 
differences have come about through infinitely minute gradations 
rather than by great leaps. Much has been made, for instance, of 
the difference between the religion of the child and of the youth, 
and yet everything to be found in the moral and religious point 
of view of the youth had its beginnings and its incubation in child- 
hood. There is no abrupt shift from one to the other. This does 
not mean, of course, that no time of life has any striking or dis- 
tinctive characteristics. We are striving rather to emphasize the 
fact that what we always find, when we look carefully, is continuity 
in development rather than abrupt transition. 

Even on the physical side of child development, this is perfectly 
true. The time of rapid growth, at the period of puberty, does not 
normally begin suddenly nor does it end all at once. Even though 
the actual rise in the curves of height and weight occur with seem- 
ing abruptness, the child has, in the years previous, been getting 
ready for this accelerated development. . . . 

The development of the sex instinct at puberty is no exception 
to this rule. The manifestations of this impulse at that time are 
usually so striking that psychologists have tended to point to it 
as an instance of sudden transition. The little child has been as- 
sumed to be sexless in all his interests. The meaning of sex sud- 
denly, it has been held, dawns upon him at puberty. This view is 
quite erroneous. The sex life of the child begins at birth. Gradually, 
through the years of childhood, differentiation goes on, not merely 
in the physical organism but also in mental attitudes, interests, in 
general points of view. One of the most important contributions of 
the study of early and later childhood has been the discovery that 
sex impulses and interests appear, normally, very early and develop 
as an integral part of the childhood self. The period of puberty, 
therefore, marks no abrupt transition; but is simply the time when 
the long antecedent development emerges, occupies a larger place 
in the child's horizon, and attracts the attention of the observer 
so that he drops into the fallacy of imagining that something 
entirely new has suddenly come into being. 

Youth is a transition period, but no more so than is any season 
of life, so long as life continues to be truly alive, for life is, in its 
essence, change and progress for better or for worse. ^ 

^ King, I., The High-School Age, pp. 66-71. Quoted with the permission 
of the author and his publishers, Bobbs-Merrill Company. 



62 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

The clarity of King's presentation leaves no opportunity 
to escape the conclusion that his views involve the theory 
of continuous and gradual development. 

19. Evaluation of the two theories. In attempting to 
evaluate the two theories of development above presented 
it is necessary briefly to examine and interpret the data and 
arguments on which the theories depend. When the theory 
of saltatory development is thus examined it is found to rest 
on the assumption of the saltatory development of physical 
traits, an analogy between physical and mental traits, and 
certain evidence which is supposed to support the theory 
directly. Thus it is held that quantitative measurements of 
certain parts and organs of the body indicate that at puberty 
a rather sudden and abrupt change is foxmd in the rates of 
development. Growth in height and weight at adolescence 
especially is instanced. Facts indicate the possibility of such 
sudden accession of development in the case of some organs 
and parts of the body, though the interpretation of certain 
data is open to question because of their character, the 
method of investigation or measurement, and the deductions 
made. In the case of other parts and organs the available 
data point toward quite a different condition, so that it is 
clear that not all parts and organs manifest sudden matur- 
ing at puberty and, therefore, that any statement of salta- 
tory development in general is not justified and probably 
not true. As has been suggested (e.g., in the quotation from 
King above), some misconceptions are involved even in 
interpreting measurements in growth and height, and even 
in the case of the development of physiological traits char- 
acteristic of puberty abrupt development is not to be 
assumed as established. Unless more tangible connection 
between the physiological organs directly indicative of 
puberty and other physical and physiological traits can he 
shown, we should have little warrant in assuming radical 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 63 

changes in those other traits to be determined by or to be 
coincident with puberty, even if it could be shown that the 
latter were abrupt and sudden in development. The burden 
of proof is positive, not negative. 

When the none too well established theory of saltatory 
development of physical traits is made the basis of an anal- 
ogy on which to build up a theory of saltatory develop- 
ment of mental traits, a dangerous step is taken. Argument 
by analogy is always treacherous and always requires cor- 
roborative evidence. Certainly in the present case, if it is to 
be employed at all, the analog should be drawn to all organs 
and parts of the body or to t£.e body as a whole, rather than 
to certain parts only, which themselves differ from other 
parts in the nature of their development. More appropriate 
still would be an analogy to the physiological development 
of the nervous system, especially to the development of the 
higher centers in the brain. It is, however, just here that we 
have the least reliable data. Such as the data are they are in 
many respects unfavorable to a theory of saltatory develop- 
ment. Certainly it is vicious to argue in a circle that ob- 
served changes in physical development indicate changes in 
mental traits, and then to argue that '* the new intellectual 
and emotional activities of this period must be accompanied 
by the functioning of cerebral centers that have lain dor- 
mant before." 

Direct evidence of the development of mental traits with 
age is of two sorts: (1) that obtained by careful quantitative 
measurement, and (2) that obtained from psychological 
introspection (analyzing one *s own mental processes) and 
through the questionnaire method. Advocates of the theory 
of saltatory development have depended largely on the sec- 
ond of the two sorts of data. The dangers of introspection 
on the part of untrained persons are readily recognized. 
When the errors incident to its use are combined with the 



64 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

pitfalls of the questionnaire method such results as are 
obtained cannot be regarded without suspicion and doubt. 
Certainly an examination of some of the studies made in this 
field and by those methods cannot fail to leave the critic 
wholly skeptical of the greater part of such investigations 
and unwilling to accept the conclusions reached. ^ 

Arguments for the theory of gradual development rest 
largely on the results of such quantitative measurements as 
those referred to above. Advocates of the theory hold that 
such data as we have, inadequate though they are for exact 
analysis, are indicative of continuous and gradual develop- 
ment in mental traits. This is shown in the tables presented 
in the first sections of this chapter. 

20. Implications for secondary education. The entire 
economy of secondary education is seriously affected by the 
problem involved in the theories above outlined. Questions 
of vital importance in connection with the organization and 
administration of the school, subjects of study, methods of 
teaching, and the treatment of secondary school pupils de- 
pend for their solution on the adoption of either of the two 
theories discussed. 

(1) Organization and administration : When one examines 
the Hterature of secondary education he finds it replete with 
references to it as the institution for the education of adoles- 
cent boys and girls, which is in general a fact not open to 
question. Secondary education is indeed largely a matter of 
the education of adolescents. When, however, it is main- 
tained that the change from preadolescence to adolescence 
is relatively sudden and abrupt, and hence that a relatively 
radical differentiation should be made between elementary 
education and secondary education, or that the organization 
and administration of the school system should be based on 

1 For criticism of this method of investigation see Thorndike, E. L., The 
Original Nature of Man, pp. 27-42. 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 65 

the assumption that homogeneity is characteristic of the 
children before and after puberty, the grounds for such a 
theory are by no means so well established. For many years 
the assumption that relatively sudden and abrupt changes 
take place in the individual at the age of approximately 
fourteen years has been made the justification of our pres- 
ent division between elementary and secondary education. 
Thus Monroe: 

It is now known that during the adolescent period the child 
undergoes such a radical change, physically and psychically, that 
education can find in these changes the suflacient basis for a differ- 
entiation between the earlier and the secondary stages of educa- 
tion. . . . Other reasons were more influential in setting the age 
limits of the American secondary school, but the general recogni- 
tion of the peculiar interests, abilities, and characteristics of the 
adolescent age has had much to do with determining these limits. 
While the democratic feature of elementary education is no doubt 
the determining factor in fixing the beginning of the secondary 
school period at about the fourteenth year, the recognition of the 
importance of the adolescent period has grown in weight through- 
out the history of the American high school.^ 

More recent studies of the phenomena of puberty and 
adolescence have been interpreted to indicate that the adoles- 
cent period usually begins at an earlier stage than at the age 
of fourteen, probably nearer the age of twelve, and as a result 
the assertion is sometimes made that on that basis second- 
ary education should begin at about that age. Thus Davis : 

Again, the present mode of organizing and administering edu- 
cational work in America is ill grounded. The adolescent period 
usually begins at about the age of twelve years. . . . The beginning 
of adolescence is most emphatically the beginning of the period of 
secondary education. ^ 

^ Monroe, P., The Principles of Secondary Education, pp. 9-10. Quoted 
with the permission of the pubHshers, The Macmillan Company. 

2 Davis, CO., at page 69 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High School 
Education. 



66 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

In complete form the argument may be stated thus : Ado- 
lescence begins at the age of twelve (thirteen ? fourteen?) ; 
marked, sudden and abrupt physical and psychical changes 
take place in children at the onset of adolescence; the sepa- 
ration between elementary education and secondary educa- 
tion should be determined by this factor of adolescence. It 
is obvious that the validity of the conclusion depends on the 
validity of the premises. It is also obvious that the theory of 
continuous and gradual development would lead to a far 
different conclusion. The argument based on that theory 
would run somewhat as follows: Development at puberty 
and adolescence must be conceived essentially as unitary, 
continuous, and gradual process, adolescence itseK being but 
a period of change extending over a fairly long period of time 
and being but an integral part of a larger period of growth 
without points of definite demarcation which sharply differ- 
entiate it from earlier or later development. Consequently no 
definite dates can be set for puberty and adolescence so that 
any sharp separation of elementary and secondary education 
is without justification. 

The general principles affecting the validity of the prem- 
ises of the two fundamental theories involved have been dis- 
cussed above. There remain, however, at least two impor- 
tant factors to be considered, especially as affecting the prac- 
ticability of adapting the organization and administration 
of the system of education to the implications of the theory 
of saltatory development at adolescence. The first factor to 
be considered involves the element of variability. In the 
data which were presented regarding physical and mental 
traits emphasis was centered on " averages," etc. It is al- 
ways important, however, in dealing v/ith groups of indi- 
viduals and in measuring traits which vary in amount 
among those individuals, to take account of the amount of 
variability as well as the central tendency as measured by 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 67 

the average, median, mode, etc. It is recognized that at all 
times different amounts of a trait will be found for different 
individuals. It is recognized that the time of the onset of 
pubescence differs for boys and girls, that the time varies for 
either sex, and that the duration of the process of change 
varies. Since we are dealing with a variable quantity it is 
important to know not only the central tendency of the age 
at which adolescence begins (e.g., the average age for the 
beginning of adolescence), but also the amount of the varia- 
tion from that central tendency. If, for instance, the central 
tendency of the age for the ending of prepubescence and the 
beginning of pubescence in the case of boys is found to be 
fourteen years, and the variation of individuals from that age 
were such that the majority of boys began to be pubescent 
within a few months of that age, a working scheme allowing 
for the saltatory theory of adolescence would be possible. 
If, on the other hand, the variation were such that a range 
of a year or two or even more from the central tendency 
would be found necessary in order to include even a majority 
of boys, organization and administration on the basis of the 
saltatory theory of development would be impracticable 
unless we adopt in toto a scheme of promotion based solely 
on physiological age as suggested by Crampton and Foster. 
Fortunately we possess certain figures for variability which 
may be considered at least as reliable as the figures for aver- 
ages, etc. Thus, on the basis of his examination of high- 
school boys of New York City, Crampton found that for the 
ending of prepubescence and the beginning of pubescence 
the middle of the mean years was fourteen years, the aver- 
age age 13.44 years, with a variability of, more or less, 1.55 
years, or more than a year and a half. This means that with 
an average date marking the beginning of pubescence of 
about thirteen and one half years, it required a range of 
more than three years to include two thirds of the boys 



68 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

measured. The importance of the factor of variability with 
reference to puberty may be noted from the tables indicat- 
ing the stages of puberty in high-school boys and in girls 
(Tables XI and XIII). On the basis of those figures if we 
should assume that all boys of the age of thirteen could be 
grouped into one school grade we should find approximately 
one haK of the boys (41-55 per cent) immature (prepubes- 
cent), approximately one quarter (26-28 per cent) maturing 
(pubescent), and approximately one quarter (18-31 per cent) 
mature (postpubescent) . If we apply the same test to boys 
fourteen the proportions would be about one fifth (16-26 per 
cent) immature, about one quarter (24-28 per cent) maturing, 
and about one half (46-60 per cent) mature. For fifteen-year- 
old boys the proportions are about twelve per cent imma- 
ture, about twenty-two per cent maturing, and about sixty- 
five per cent mature. The writer has applied the estimates 
of Crampton to the age-grade distribution of the first grade 
of a number of high schools. In every case on the basis of 
his figures we should find approximately one quarter of the 
boys immature, about one fifth in the maturing stage, and a 
little over one haK postpubescent. In the seventh grade 
about one half of the boys were found, on the basis of such 
figures, to be in the prepubescent stage, one quarter each in 
the pubescent and postpubescent stage. In the eighth grade 
about thirty-five per cent were theoretically in the pre- 
pubescent stage, about twenty-three per cent in the pu- 
bescent stage, and about forty-one per cent in the post- 
pubescent stage. 

The second factor which affects the problem is directly 
related to that just considered and arises out of the age- 
grade distribution of pupils in the public schools. It is some- 
times argued that important changes calling for adjustment 
come with adolescence; it is argued that adolescence begins 
approximately at the age of twelve (thirteen? fourteen.?*); 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 69 

it is argued that the secondary school should begin with 
children at the age of twelve. The obstinate fact is that we 
do not get a large proportion of the children of the age of 
twelve or even thirteen in the seventh grade. Proper recog- 
nition of physiological age would justify some modification 
of present conditions. It can never entirely eliminate re- 
tardation or acceleration and it never should. 

Briefly to summarize, we may say that the theory of salta- 
tory development which forms the basis of the argument for 
the sharply separated division of elementary and secondary 
education is itself open to question. If, however, its validity / 
be granted, the great variability of the age at which puberty i 
begins precludes any attempt to organize our schools defi- l 
nitely on the basis of the phenomena of adolescence. Finally, / 
even if we grant the validity of the theory of saltatory de- ; 
velopment and even if we should assume that the variability* 
in the date and duration of puberty were small enough to; 
permit fairly homogeneous groupings, the age-grade dis-^ 
tribution of pupils in the schools would prevent us from defi- 
nitely organizing the system other than in a general way on 
the basis of the needs of adolescents. 

(2) Subject-matter : Theories of saltatory development or 
of gradual development are not without importance in con- 
nection with the character of the subject-matter considered 
appropriate for the various grades of the school. One of the 
most noticeable results of adherence to the theory of salta- 
tory development is found in the rather abrupt change from 
relatively concrete and familiar subject-matter of the ele- 
mentary school to the relatively abstract and unfamiliar 
subject-matter of the secondary school. Thus Monroe:^ 

That the influence of the adolescent factor has been stronger than 
most others is shown by the fact that foreign languages, science, 

^ Monroe, P., Principles of Secondary Education, p. 10. 



70 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and higher mathematics have been made to confonn to this dis- 
tinction, when experience, the conditions in other countries, and 
the interests of the child would dictate an earlier approach. 

Certainly one may readily observe that the character of 
the secondary-school studies, even in the first year of the 
course, as a whole differ markedly from the character of the 
subject-matter of the elementary school, even in the last 
grade of that school. Only a thorough-going acceptance of 
a theory of saltatory development could justify the abrupt 
changes in studies which confront the pupil on passing from 
the last grade of the elementary school to the first grade of 
the secondary school. The theory of gradual maturing 
would permit no such sharp separation of subjects of study, 
but would postulate that the transition from relatively 
concrete subjects to relatively abstract subjects should be 
gradual. 

(3) Methods of teaching: A number of factors combine to 
make methods of teaching in the secondary school at present 
noticeably different from those employed in the elementary 
school, especially the fact that teachers in the two depart- 
ments ordinarily receive very different training. Problems 
of method in teaching in the two schools, however, are af- 
fected in no small degree by the theoretical considerations 
at present under discussion. It is by no means uncommon to 
find very radical differences in the methods of teaching justi- 
fied on the basis of the theory of saltatory development at 
adolescence. On such grounds we find it argued, for instance, 
that methods of teaching language, especially foreign lan- 
guages, when begun in the earlier grades, should be taught 
in those grades by methods which may be abruptly changed 
for pupils in the first grade of the high school. A number 
of factors enter to determine any final judgment concerning 
the place of the study of foreign language and the methods 
by which it should be taught. It must be recognized also 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 71 

that different methods of teaching are appropriate for pupils 
of different stages of development. Abrupt changes in 
methods of teaching, however, could be justified only on the 
basis of a theory of saltatory development. The theory of 
gradual maturing, while recognizing the need for differences 
in method of teaching pupils of different stages of develop- 
ment, insists that the transition in methods must be gradual. 
Hence it is argued by advocates of that theory that any 
abrupt change in teaching methods when the pupil passes 
into the secondary school involves a fundamental error. 

(Jf.) Discipline and the treatment of pupils: Under exist- 
ing circumstances important differences are found between 
methods of discipline and of treating pupils in the elementary 
school and in the secondary school so that difficult adjust- 
ments face the pupils on passing from the one to the other. 
In the elementary school, even in the last grades, pupils are 
under a maternalistic system of supervision and control, 
discipline is a matter of rules, and httle if any freedom is 
afforded in studies or in conduct. On entering the secondary 
school supervision and control are radically changed, reason 
tends to replace petty rules, and a considerable amount of 
responsibility is thrown on the pupil for his own conduct 
and to some extent for his own education. The only possible 
justification for such a condition of affairs could be found in 
the theory that the pupil becomes a radically different being, 
suddenly endowed with powers never before manifest, be- 
tween June and September of the same year. This would be 
an extreme form of the theory of saltatory development. 
Advocates of that theory have much to answer for in the 
present situation. A theory of gradual maturing would dic- 
tate that changes in the methods of discipline and of the 
treatment of children should be gradual. Its acceptance in 
practice would do much to reform existing conditions in the 
relation of elementary and secondary education. 



72 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Explain how the fallacy of selection may afiPect the problem of measur- 
ing the development of a mental trait when averages for different 
groups at different ages are made the basis for determining development. 

2. Take any one set of measurements in Table XXI or Table XXII. Com- 
pare the rates of change year by year in terms of the percentile incre- 
ment. 

3. From the data given in Tables XXI and XXII, draw graphs of the 
curve of development of some of the mental traits. 

4. Indicate as many phases as you can of current educational theory and 
practice in the late elementary- or early high-school grades which show 
evidence of the influence of a theory of serial or periodic development. 

5. Show how those phases of theory and practice would be modified to 
conform to the theory of continuous and concomitant development. 

6. How would the choice of material and methods of teaching plane 
geometry in the eighth grade differ from those found in the first or 
second year of the high school on the basis of the theory of serial or 
periodic development? How would adherence to the theory of contin- 
uous and concomitant development affect this problem? 

7. Why is the questionnaire method of doubtful value in obtaining data 
concerning the status or development of such phenomena as the rise of 
altruism, religious convictions, interests in literature, in the opposite 
sex, etc.? 

8. Consider differences in teaching English in the elementary school and 
in the secondary school. In how far are such differences due possibly 
to a theory of saltatory development? 

9. Indicate ways in which changes in the treatment which others extend 
to pupils in the first year of the high school may itself account for cer- 
tain somewhat sudden changes in pupils' attitudes and reactions. 

10. On the basis of a theory of gradual development during adolescence 
how could the work of the high school be better adapted to provide for 
gradual changes in methods of teaching, etc.? 

11. What bearing do the theories of development considered in this chapter 
have on plans for the reorganization of education? (Cf. Chapter VII). 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, chap, xii, pp. 184-202. 

Colvin, S. S., An Introduction to High-School Teaching, chap. ii. 

Bonser, F. G., The Reasoning Abilities of Children of the Fourth, Fifth, and 

Sixth School Grades. 
Burnham, W. H., " The Study of Adolescence," Pedagogical Seminary, vol. i, 

pp. 184-95. 



MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PUPIL 78 

Douglass, A. A., " The Junior High School," Fifteenth Yearbook of the Na- 
tional Society for the Study of Education, part in, chap. ii. 

Davis, C. O., "Principles and Plans for Reorganizing Secondary Educa- 
tion, chap, rv of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High School Education, pp. 
69-70. 

Dewey, J., "Reasoning in Early Childhood," Teachers College Record, vol. 
XV, pp. 9-15. 

Dewey, J., Hmv We Think, pp. 65-66. 

Gilbert, J. A., "Researches on the Mental and Physical Development of 
School Children," Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory, vol. il, 
pp. 40-100. 

Hall, G. S., Adolescence. 

Inglis, A. J., "A Fundamental Problem in the Reorganization of the High 
School," School Review, vol. xxni, pp. 307-18. 

King, I., The High School Age, chap, v-vin, pp. 66-124. 

Kirkpatrick, E. A., Fundamentals of Child Study, especially chap, iv, pp. 
247-87. 

Parker, S. C, Methods of Teaching in High Schools, chap, xin, pp. 314-35. 

Smedley, F. W., Report of the Development of Child Study and Pedagogical 
Investigation of the Chicago Public Schools, vol. ii, pp. 10-48. 

Terman, L. M., The Measure of Intelligence, chaps, i, ii, v, vi. 

Thorndike, E. L., The Original Nature of Man, chap, xvi, pp. 245-69. 

Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. ni, chap, xii, pp. 270-80. 

Thorndike, E. L., Notes on Child Study, especially pp. 40-153. 

Wallin, J. E. W., Psycho-Motor Norms for Practical Diagnosis, Psycho- 
logical Monographs, vol. xxn, no. 2, especially chap. ii. 

Whipple, G. M., Manual of Physical and Mental Tests, passim, especially 
part n (revised edition) . 

Whipple, G. M., "Psychology and Hygiene of Adolescence," chap, vii, 
Monroe, P. (Editor), Principles of Secondary Education, pp. 246-312. 

Extended bibliography on adolescence; Baldwin, B. T., Physical Growth 
and School Progress^ Bureau of Education Bulletin (1914), no. 10, pp. 
189-212. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL PUPH.: 
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 

21. Importance of recognizing individual differences. 
Within recent years two factors have tended to emphasize 
the importance of recognizing individual differences among 
secondary-school pupils: (1) the increasing heterogeneity of 
the secondary-school population; (2) the development of 
the psychology of individual differences. 

(1) Until toward the close of the nineteenth century pupils 
enrolled in the secondary schools of the country constituted 
a roughly homogeneous group in the sense that they were 
boys and girls from relatively well-to-do American families, 
who for the most part looked forward to a cultural educa- 
tion in the high school which would prepare them for college 
and for the higher walks of life. The past quarter century, 
however, has marked a period in the development of second- 
ary education characterized by the expansion of the second- 
ary school so as to provide education for classes of pupils 
never before represented in large numbers in the secondary 
school. The result has been a very greatly increased hetero- 
geneity in the high-school population, and consequently a 
demand for increased attention to the varied capacities, in- 
terests, and probable future activities of secondary-school 
pupils, and to the differentiated needs of society. 

(2) Within the past decade educational psychology has 
found no more fruitful field than that of the psychology of 
individual differences, and in no other field have the results 
of psychological investigation contributed more to our edu- 
cational theory and practice. It has, of course, always been 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 75 

recognized that individuals differ each from the other in 
physical and mental traits. Only recently, however, have 
we begmi to realize the full meaning of that fact and the im- 
plications for secondary education. It is probably no exag- 
geration to say that the adaptation of secondary education 
on the one hand to meet the needs of different capacities, 
interests, and probable futures among pupils, and on the 
other hand to meet the differentiated needs of society, is the 
most important problem of secondary education at the 
present time. 

Some idea of the great range of abiHties among secondary- 
school pupils may be gained from an examination of the con- 
ditions indicated in Tables XXIII-XXIV. 

When we note that high-school pupils who are engaged in 
the study of algebra may differ so widely in their abilities to 
perform the ordinary operations of arithnaetic that some are 
from three to four times as capable as others in addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication, and division, and almost immeasur- , 
ably more efficient in handling abstract examples and rea- 
soning as measured by the Courtis Tests, the importance of 
recognizing individual differences in capacities is impressed 
on us. 

22. The distribution of individual differences. In consid- 
ering differences among pupils of any given gToup with refer- 
ence to the amounts of a trait possessed, there is always an 
unconscious tendency to separate the individuals and class- 
ify them in more or less discrete groups, e.g., short, medium- 
sized, and tall boys; young, average-aged, and older pupils 
— with an assumption (again commonly unconscious) that 
those groups may be rather sharply differentiated. Siich 
procedure is usually fallacious and is as objectionable and 
productive of evil results in practice as it is unsound and un- 
justified in theory. It is a fact of importance that in the 
case of most if not all traits having bearing on secondary edu- 



76 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table XXIII. Individual Differences in Seventh and 
Eighth Grade Pupils * 



I Trait 



Age in months 

Height in inches 

Grip in kilograms 

Cancellations, number of A's. . 
Addition, number of problems 

Spelling, per cent right 

Associations, number right. . . . 
Auditory memory, per cent. . , 
Visual memory, per cent 



Minimum 


Maximum 


Range 


140.5 


220 


79.5 


54 


67.5 


13.5 


20 


45.5 


25.5 


39 


95 


56 





9 


9 


20 


94 


74 





21 


21 


38.3 


90 


51.7 


46.6 


96.3 


51.7 



Maximum-^ 
Minimum 



1.6 
1.3 

2.3 

2.4 

? 

4.7 
7 

2.4 
2.1 



* Chambers, W. G., "Individual Differences in Grammar Grade Children," Journal 
oj Educational Psychology, vol. i, pp. 61-75. 

Table XXIV. Differences in Arithmetical Abilities in 
First- Year High-School Pupils (Courtis Tests)! 



Trait and Test 



1. Addition 

2. Subtraction 

3. Multiplication 

4. Division 

5. Copying figures 

6. Speed reasoning, attempted .... 
Speed reasoning, right 

7. Abstract examples, attempted. . 
Abstract examples, right 

8. Reasoning, examples attempted. 
Reasoning, examples right 



Minimum 


Maximum 


Range 


35 


115 


80 


25 


105 


80 


25 


85 


60 


25 


105 


80 


5 


205 


200 


1 


13 


12 





10 


10 


7 


19 


12 





19 


19 





8 


8 





7 


7 



Maximum-r 
Minimum 



3.29 

4.20 

3.40 

4.20 

41.00 

13.00 

? 

2.71 
? 
? 
? 



t Compiled and arranged from Courtis, S. A., in Report of the Committee on School Inquiry, 
Board of Estimate and Apportionment, City of New York, vol. i, pp. 434, 440-44. 



cation, sharply differentiated groupings of pupils must be 
considered as arbitrary divisions wbich may facilitate or- 
ganization and administration, but may also lead to bane- 
ful educational results. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



77 



If we consider, for example, the age of pupils in any grade 
of the secondary school we find that the term " average age " 
means Uttle, and that the classification of pupils as young, 
average-aged, and old is even less intelligible. Thus in the 
following table classification on such a basis would mean 
little. 

Table XXV. Age Distribution of 949 Pupils entering the 
Public High Schools of New York City in 1906* 



Age in years 


Boya 


GirU 


Both 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Percent 


Number 


Per cent 


11.5-12.0 
12.0-12.5 
12.5-13.0 
13.0-13.5 
13.5-14.0 
14.0-14.5 
14.5-15.0 
15.0-15.5 
15.5-16.0 
16.0-16.5 
16.5-17.0 
17.0-17.5 
17.5-18.0 


2 

2 

13 

45 

55 

55 

74 

38 

35 

24 

12 

6 

1 


0.6 

0.6 

3.6 

12.4 

15.2 

15.2 

20.4 

10.5 

9.7 

6.6 

3.3 

1.6 

0.3 




2 

13 

73 

85 

116 

105 

87 

53 

37 

12 

3 

1 


0.0 

0.4 

2.2 

12.4 

14.5 

19.8 

17.9 

14.8 

9.0 

6.3 

2.0 

0.5 

0.2 


2 

4 

26 

118 

140 

171 

179 

125 

88 

61 

24 

9 

2 


0.2 

0.4 

2.7 

12.4 

14.8 

18.0 

18.9 

13.2 

9.3 

6.4 

2.5 

1.0 

0.2 


Median 
M.D. 


14 yrs., 6 mos. 
9 mos. 


14 yrs., 6 mos. 
8 mos. 


14 yrs., 6 mos. 
8 mos. 



* Compiled and arranged from data given by Van Denburg, J. K., Causes of the Elim' 
inaiion of Students in Public Secondary Schools of New York City, p. 23. 



The distribution of various amounts of any trait follows 
regular laws and is not haphazard and hit-or-miss. It has 
been found that in the case of variable physical and mental 
traits, where a sufficiently large number of individuals is 
measured and no selective agency is involved, the numbers 
of individuals possessing different amounts of the trait 



78 PKINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



measured tend to be -distributed according to the laws of 
probability. Such laws imply that between the lowest amount 
of the trait which is found in an individual at one extreme, 
and the highest amount which is found in an individual at 
the other extreme, individuals will be found possessing differ- 
ent intervening amounts of the trait; that the greatest 
number of individuals manifesting any given amount of the 
trait will be found at a point haK-way between the two ex- 
tremes; that the number of individuals possessing various 
amounts of the trait increases as the mid-point is approached 
from either extreme according to a fixed mathematical law. 
Such a distribution is illustrated in the following tables. 



Table XXVI. Distribution of Various Amounts of Height 
IN the Case of 1171 American Sixteen- Year-Old Girls, 
compared with an Approximate Theoretic Distribution* 





Actual distribution 1171 cases 


Theoretic distribution 1034^ cases 


Height in centimeters 
















Number 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Numier 


136^139 


2 


0.2 


0.1 


1 


140-143 


12 


1.0 


1.0 


10 


144-147 


54 


4.6 


4.4 


45 


148-151 


159 


13.6 


11.7 


120 


152-155 


280 


23.9 


20.5 


210 


156-159 


310 


26.5 


24.6 


252 


160-163 


218 


18.6 


20.5 


210 


164-167 


102 


8.7 


11.7 


120 


168-171 


31 


2.6 


4.4 


45 


172-175 


2 


0.2 


1.0 


10 


176-179 


1 


0.1 


0.1 


1 


139-177 


1171 


100.0 


100.0 


1024 



* Figures for the actual distribution compiled from data given by Burk, F. (after Boas), 
"The Growth of Children in Height and Weight," Am^can Journal qf Psychology, vol. QC 
(1897-98), p. 266. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 81 

Table XXVlil. Distribution of High-School Grades* 



Percentile 


English grades 2^4 pupils 
Madison (Wis.) High 
School 


Mathematics grades 181 
■pupils Madison {Wis.) 
nigh School 


Average grades lf72 
pupils eight high schools 


grade 










Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


70-71 


1 


0.4 





0.0 


1 


0.2 


72-74 


4 


1.6 


4 


2.2 





0.0 


75-77 


17 


7.0 


14 


7.7 


18 


3.8 


78-80 


42 


17.2 


25 


13.8 


80 


17.0 


81-83 


50 


20.5 


26 


14.4 


92 


19.5 


84-86 


51 


20.9 


34 


18.8 


101 


21.4 


87-89 


43 


17.6 


28 


15.5 


86 


18.2 


90-92 


24 


9.9 


25 


13.8 


64 


13.6 


93-95 


11 


4.5 


21 


11.6 


27 


5.7 


96-98 


1 


0.4 


4 


2.2 


3 


0.6 


99-100 









0.0 






Total 


244 


100.0 


181 


100.0 


472 


100.0 



* Tables and the following graphs compiled from data given in Dearborn, W. F., The 
Relative Standing of Pupils in the High Schools and in the University, Bulletin of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, no. 312, Plates V, A, C, I, A. 



These figures are reduced to the form of graphs as fol- 
lows. 



^0 



•I 

1) 

p- 



' I 



G-r adLe 7o-7i' yi-lV 7f'7-^' 7i-h)' if^S a-'^'H' »7-»r?c-'il,' 93-fr' fC-fj- 

Figure D. Illustrating the Distribution of Grades in 
English, given in Table XX VIII 



8S 



PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION" 



^0 

A. 
S 
o 

e 

« 
p- 



Figure E. iLLusTRATmo the Distribution of Grades in 
Mathematics, given in Table XXVIII 



20 


r-^ 


1 




h' 








> 

£ 
w 


- 








1.S 








^ ———J 


r., ^^^^^ ' 




l£3/ « O 



Figure F. Illustrating the Distribution of Average High- 
School Grades, given in Table XXVIII 



In stating the law governing the normal distribution of 
various amounts of a given trait, two conditions were made 
— that normal distribution will not appear if too few cases 
are taken to permit the operation of the law of chance and 
that the distribution will not be " normal " if any selective 
factor is involved. If a small number of individuals is 
measured different amounts of the trait will be scattered 
irregularly, sometimes with gaps where no individual's 
record is found. This is illustrated in the following table 
and figure. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 83 

Table XXIX. Distribution of the Grades of 26 Pupils in 
History: First Year of High School* 



Grades 
70-74 
75-79 
80-84 



Number of Cases 
6 
2 




Grades 


Number of Cases 


85-89 


5 


90-94 


6 


95-100 


7 



♦ Compiled from Gray, C. T., Variaiioru in the Grades qf High-School Pupils, p. 12. 



is 

-a 2 

^ 



^ 751 75- 80- 86- 

avi.i*s 74 79 84 89 



90- 95- 
94 100 

Figure G. Illustrating the Distribution given in 
Table XXIX 

<» 

Such is the usual condition in any recitation group in the 
secondary school, and an irregular distribution must be ex- 
pected in most pupil groups where less than one hundred 
pupils are involved. The greater the number of pupils con- 
sidered, other things being equal, the greater the likelihood 
that the distribution will approximate the normal. 

The second factor which conditions the operation of the 
law of probability distribution is the factor of selection. 
Whenever any group of pupils is selected on the basis of the 
amount of a given trait possessed the result is a lop-sided or 
" skewed " form of distribution in which one or both ends of 
the distribution are lopped off. Thus, if the pupils whose 
records are represented in Table XXVIII and Figure F were 
separated into three groups on the basis of their average 
grades, with the dividing lines at 80 per cent and 90 per 



84. PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

cent (assuming that the grading really represented abiHties), 
we should then have three groups in which the distributions 
would appear as in Table XXX and Figure H. Theoreti- 
cally something of this sort takes place through our system 
of promotion, except that the division is commonly in two 
divisions only. However, owing to the inadequacies of our 
grading and promotion systems the separation is always in- 
complete so that the overlapping of distributions is always 
great. This is clearly seen from the distributions of arith- 
metical abilities in the various grades of the high school as 
measured by Courtis.^ 



Table XXX 



Casds 



Grade 



'^ 70-71 



(Gotades 70-80 

(No. Cases 99 ^ 72-74 

( i* Caaes 81.0 ( - - — 

C ( 75-77 

(. - - 



Wo. 
1 



0.2 



^. 73-80 




18 
80 



0.0 
S.8 

17.0 



Il(Mo£!a8e8 279 ( 84-86 101 21.4 
(f> Casaa 69.1 (" -------- 

( 87-89 96 18.2 



III 



(Grades 90-98 ( 90-92 64 13. G 

( ( 

(Ho.Casied 94 ( 

( ( 

( io Cases 19.9 (----V---- 

( ( 96-98 S 0.0 



93-96. 27 5.7 



Fig. H. 

T&r oent of group 
O i» Z ^ a 



(Grades 81-89 \,^^'!i .""^ . }l'l 



Table XXX and Figure H. Illustrating the Distribution 
Abilities in Groups where Selection is Involved 



1 Courtis, S. A., loc. cit. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 85 

23. The interpretation of measures. In measuring the 
abilities of a group of secondary-school pupils common prac- 
tice utilizes a measure for the central tendency only — for 
that purpose ordinarily employing the average.^ From 
what has been said of the character and distribution of dif- 
ferent degrees of a variable trait such as is commonly in- 
volved in school work, it may be seen that a measure of the 
central tendency alone (e.g., the average) may be a very un- 
trustworthy guide and lead us to leave very important facts 
out of consideration. How unsatisfactory a measure of the 
central tendency alone may be can be seen from the three 
sample distributions given in Table XXXI, each of which 
has the same average, median, and mode, but differs in many 
other important respects. 

From such possible forms of distribution as those indi- 
cated in this table, each of which has the same central tend- 
ency as the others, but differs radically in the form of dis- 
tribution and the amount of variability, it may be seen that 
the only real method of indicating the character of the group 
is through a table of total distribution. Ordinarily, however, 
it is sufiBcient for all practical purposes to indicate the cen- 
tral tendency by means of the average or median, and in 
addition to indicate some measure of the variability by 
means of the average deviation, median deviation, or 
standard deviation. Most secondary-school matters are 
determined erroneously on the basis of group averages and 
fail to be adapted to important differences in the pupil 
groups. 

^ Other measures of the central tendency are the median = the record 
above which and below which is an equal number of all the cases, and the 
mode = the measure most commonly occurring in the measurement of the 
group. For the technical terminology and the technique of applying these 
measures consult Whipple, G. M., Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, 
chap. 11; or Thomdike, E. L., Mental and Social Measurements; or Rugg, 
H. O., Statistical Methods Applied to Education. 



86 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table XXXI. Three Hypothetical Distributions illustrat- 
ing THE INADEQUACY OF THE CENTRAL TENDENCY AS THE SoLE 

Measure of a Variable Trait 





Case A 


CaseB 


CaseC 


Record 


Frequency 


Frequency 


Frequency 








8 


9 


10 





12 


17 


20 





20 


1 


30 





8 


10 


40 


32 


2 


1 


50 


36 





20 


60 


32 


2 


2 


70 





8 


8 


80 





20 


13 


90 





12 


15 


100 





8 


4 


Total number 


100 


100 


100 


Average record 


50 


50 


^^ ) Central 


Median record 


50 


50 


-Q i Tendency 


Modal records 


50 


20 and 80 


Average deviation . . . 


0.64 


3.32 


2.74) 


Median deviation. . . . 


0.22 


2.75 


2.64 \ Variability 


Standard deviation . . 


0.08 


3.48 


3.22 J 



M 



24. The causes of individual differences. Many causes 
combine to produce the individual differences found among 
secondary-school pupils and they affect the theory and prac- 
tice of secondary education in several important ways. A 
brief analysis of the major factors or groups of factors in- 
volved, together with their implications for secondary edu- 
cation, forms the basis of the remaining portion of this 
chapter. The factors to be considered are as follows: (1) 
biological heredity; (2) social heredity; (3) maturity; (4) 
environment and training; (5) sex. The classification is an 
arbitrary one designed to facilitate analysis, and the factors 
suggested are not mutually exclusive in all cases, e.g., social 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 87 

heredity is in reality a part of environment and training and 
is separated therefrom merely for convenience in handling 
the topic. 

A glance at the list given at once suggests a multitude 
of important problems for secondary education. Some of 
the problems connected with maturity have already been 
considered in the previous chapters. Biological heredity 
(parental and racial) involves problems arising out of the 
racially heterogeneous character of our population as well as 
including those arising out of the fact that each pupil repre- 
sents a distinct problem. Closely connected with problems 
arising out of racial heredity and parental heredity in the 
biological sense are problems arising out of the factor of so- 
cial heredity, particularly important in our miscegeneous 
and heterogeneous population. The problems arising out of 
differences in other environmental factors cover the entire 
economy of the secondary school. Finally, it will be recog- 
nized that individual differences due to sex introduce all the 
problems involved in questions of segregation, coeducation, 
etc. 

25. Common errors in interpreting differences. Certain 
errors are so common in the interpretation of individual 
differences among secondary-school pupils that they deserve 
mention here. 

(1) Analogies between individual differences in physical 
traits and individual differences in mental traits are danger- 
ous unless supported by more direct evidence. The error is 
common of assuming important differences in mental traits 
because of easily observed differences in physical traits 
among pupils of different races, sex, or degrees of physical 
maturity. 

(2) Care must be taken to distinguish between differ- 
ences which are due to inborn tendencies and those which 
are due to environment and training. The former may be 



88 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

accepted as relatively fixed factors to which education must 
conform. The latter must be considered as acquired and, 
therefore, subject to modification through education. Na- 
ture must be accepted: the environment and training may 
be controlled. This point is important in connection with 
differences due to biological heredity and social heredity and 
in connection with sex differences. 

(3) The existence of differences among pupils does not 
necessarily imply the necessity or desirability of adapting 
secondary education to them. In many cases the demands of 
highly artificial conditions of life may demand like educa- 
tion for the very purpose of diminishing those differences. 
In other cases differentiated education is both necessary and 
desirable. 

(4) Lack of differences does not necessarily justify the 
same form of secondary education for all. Differences in 
future needs will commonly justify differences in secondary 
education for different groups of pupils. 

(5) The indirect and contingent results of certain original 
differences must not be confused with those directly and 
necessarily involved. Sex differences in physical traits, for 
example, frequently cause differences in the social treatment 
of boys and girls, which in turn cause differences in mental 
attitudes which create actual differences in mental traits be- 
tween the sexes. Such differences must be considered as con- 
tingent and not necessary results. Like treatment of boys 
and girls might well eliminate many sex differences now 
found which are the results of unlike treatment. This may 
or may not be desirable. The same principle also applies to 
many so-called racial differences. Doubtless many observ- 
able traits which we note in certain races in America are due 
solely or primarily to the social treatment to which they are 
subjected. Many of these secondary education should aim 
to eradicate. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 89 

(6) The fallacy of unfair selection always lurks in the 
path of the investigator of individual differences among 
pupils. A comparison, for instance, of the school records of 
pupils of different nationalities almost always involves a 
difference in selection. 

26. Individual differences due to biological heredity. 
That individual differences in physical traits are determined 
primarily by heredity is readily recognized. That mental 
traits also are largely determined by heredity is not so readily 
recognized, though probably no less true. In the case both 
of physical and of mental traits it must be conceived that the 
limit which a trait may reach in any given individual is de- 
termined by heredity. Within the range from zero to that 
limit what status the individual may reach is more or less de- 
termined by the environment and by training, which is, 
however, within limits, more potent in the case of mental 
traits than in the case of physical traits. 

Among secondary-school pupils there can be no doubt 
that the great amount of variability found is due primarily 
to differences in the parentage and ancestry of those pupils. 
Since each individual pupil represents an independent prob- 
lem the importance of individual differences is emphasized. 
The impossibility of definite analysis of individual differ- 
ences due to differences in immediate or parental heredity 
(where each individual or family group of individuals must, 
from the nature of the case, constitute a separate problem 
and therefore defy generalization) tends to influence us to 
generalize on the basis of remote or racial inheritance. Such 
procedure is likely to lead either to an overemphasis or an 
underemphasis of the importance of racial differences with 
reference to the treatment of secondary-school pupils. This 
is likely to happen for one or both of two reasons. In the 
first place, any attempt to analyze racial groups for the pur- 
pose of discovering racial differences meets with an initial 



90 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

difficulty in the fact that intermarriage has so extensively 
affected population in all countries, but particularly in 
America, that careful distinction is in most cases totally im- 
possible even where differences in nationality would appear 
to indicate differences in race. In the second place, it must 
be remembered that in all probability differences found 
among individuals of the same racial ancestry are commonly 
so great as to swallow up the differences between any two 
racial groups of importance in our secondary schools as far 
as differences due to biological heredity alone are concerned, and 
except in so far as differences due to natural heredity may in- 
directly lead to important differences in social heredity and 
environment. This may be illustrated by the grades in Eng- 
lish received by 149 white and 149 negro pupils in the high 
schools of New York City. 

Table XXXII * 



Grades received 


White Pupils 


Negroes 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


0-29 
30-39 
40-49 
50-59 
60-69 
70-79 
80-89 
90-100 


1 

2 
4 
14 
73 
39 
13 
3 


0.7 
1.3 

2.7 
9.4 
49.0 
26.2 
8.7 
2.2 




2 

13 

44 

67 

16 

7 




0.0 
1.3 

8.7 

29.5 

45.0 

10.8 

4.7 

0.0 


Total 


149 


100.0 


149 


100.0 


Average grade 
A.D. 


66.8 % 
7.45 


61.3 % 

7.25 



* Compiled from Mayo, M. J., The Mental Capacity of the American Negro, p. 30. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



91 






50 












^S 








c40 












i 












a • 












t3f 












^ 












«30 












s 












+» 












ta^ 






^ 












ii.Q 












4 












u 












s-Zf 












•«> 












o- 












/o 














5 










' -- 










1 






' r 


^ 1 1 




I 


C-raie 'o-;i3 




«-« . 


£0-69 


'70-75 


• 


tM f _. ! 












« 


« , .o 


S o 


«vi 


«n • 


'r « 


C^ 


. VO ' 


r» '. o <» 


fc -l 


If ! 




"~ 


^ 


V0 


• "^ 


1 ^ 
r 1 ^ 


^ i 


«>4 ' 












t 


JP- 


«* ^ 


U 


V 


V 


en 


• OS 


^ \ fn 


<79 


^ 


w 






> 


i 


1 


1 1 




"T- 



Figure I. Illustrating Table XXXII 



92 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

This table and the accompanying graph are presented 
here, not as indicating the relative status of white and negro 
pupils in the secondary school, but to illustrate the fact that 
where differences in the average attainment of two different 
groups are as wide as 66.8 (for whites) and 61.3 (for negroes), 
and the variability much the same, the overlapping is so 
great that the differences between whites and negroes is 
swallowed up by the differences between the whites them- 
selves or between the negroes themselves. In general the 
statement made by Thorndike is in point: 

My own estimate is that greater differences will be found in the 
case of the so-called "higher" traits, such as the capacity to asso- 
ciate and to analyze, thinking with parts or elements, and origi- 
nality, than in the case of sensory and sensori-motor traits, but that 
there will still be very great overlapping. Calling the difference 
between the original capacity of the lowest congenital idiot and 
that of the average modern European 100, I should expect the 
average deviation of one pure race from another in original capacity 
to be below 10 and above 1, and the difference between the central 
tendency of the most and the least gifted races to be below 50 and 
above 10. I should consider 3 and 25 as reasonable guesses for 
the two differences. 

Even if the differences were far larger than these, the practical 
precept for education would remain unchanged. It is, of course, 
that selection by race of original natures to be educated is nowhere 
nearly as effective as selection of the superior individuals regard- 
less of race. There is much overlapping and the differences iq 
original nature within the same race are, except in extreme cases, 
many times as great as the differences between races as wholes.^ 

The fact is, of course, that the secondary school, in so far 
as its selective function operates, selects individuals on a 
basis which is roughly the same for all who enter or attempt 
to enter, with the result that if races differ essentially their 
representatives in the secondary school indicate different 

1 Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. ni, p. 224. Quoted with 
the permission of the publishers. Teachers College Bureau of Publications. 



Inferiority 

1 


Superiority 

a 


1 


o 

i 


o 


P< 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 93 

forms of selection with reference to race. This may be seen 
from the following hypothetical diagram: 

Scale 
Race A 

Race B 

Race C 

Thus it is quite probable that the negroes in the secondary 
school represent a much more select portion of that race 
than the selection of whites represented by white children in 
the school. Hence it follows that secondary-school pupils of 
a race, which as a whole may be considered of inferior mental 
capacity, are not necessarily themselves inferior to secondary- 
school pupils belonging to a race w^hich as a whole may be 
considered of superior mental capacity. Certainly it is most 
imsafe to assume certain characteristics of a race and to as- 
sume that those characteristics will be found in all repre- 
sentatives of that race in the secondary school. 

On the whole, it is probably safe to say that whatever 
importance for secondary education is to be attached to in- 
dividual differences due to race considered from the stand- 
point of biological heredity, far greater importance is to be 
attached to race influence as conditioning the social heredity 
and differences in the environment — indirect rather than 
direct results. As a matter of fact it is extremely diiOScult, 
if not quite impossible, to separate these factors, just as it is 
extremely difficult always to separate the results of heredity 
and environment and training. 

Perhaps the nearest approach to exceptional differences 
due to racial heredity for any large group of secondary school 
pupils may be found in the cases of negroes and whites. 
Mayo has measured the accompUshment of 150 negroes in 



94 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the high schools of New York City and compared it with 
that of a like number of white pupils chosen at random. The 
results of his study are given in Table XXXIII. It must be 
remembered in interpreting the table that the negroes repre- 
sent a relatively high selection of their race and that inter- 
marriage with whites has more or less modified the racial 
stock. 

Table XXXIH * 



Grades 


English 


Foreign 
Lan- 
guages 


Mathe- 
matics 


Science 


History 


Ancient 
Lan- 
guages 


Com- 
mercial 
Subjects 


AU 
Subjects 




W. 

1 


c. 




W. 



3 


C. 

2 


W. 
1 


C. 
6 


W. 



C. 



W. 



C. 



W. 



C. 




W. 

1 


C. 



W. 



C. 


Below 20 





20- 24 














1 


2 





1 





1 





1 











1 


25- 29 











2 








1 








1 





1 














30- 34 


1 


1 


2 


2 


5 


4 





4 





2 


2 


2 








1 





35- 39 


1 


1 


6 


2 


3 


6 





3 


1 





4 





2 


2 


1 





40- 44 


3 


4 


4 


6 


3 


9 


4 


5 


3 


4 


1 


3 





2 


3 


5 


45- 49 


1 


9 


5 


18 


8 


7 


3 


8 


1 


7 


1 


6 


2 


1 





J) 


50- 54 


9 


19 


15 


15 


10 


18 


5 


13 


3 


14 


2 


7 


3 


3 


8 


18 


65- 59 


5 


25 


16 


21 


17 


23 


16 


14 


8 


15 


4 


9 


1 


13 


9 


23 


60- 64 


36 


39 


36 


31 


26 


27 


27 


35 


22 


15 


16 


14 


6 


9 


46 


49 


65- 69 


37 


28 


23 


19 


22 


17 


23 


18 


20 


12 


13 


5 


4 


9 


29 


34 


70- 74 


28 


10 


19 


10 


11 


11 


28 


16 


16 


11 


9 


6 


7 


6 


29 


4 


75- 79 


11 


6 


12 


6 


17 


■ 7 


17 


9 


6 


3 


6 


2 


7 


2 


7 


6 


80- 84 


10 


4 


4 


5 


11 


3 


5 


4 


4 


4 


1 


2 


6 


1 


8 


4 


85- 89 


3 


3 


4 


2 


6 


3 


1 





3 


3 


2 


2 


2 


1 


1 


1 


90-100 


3 





2 





2 


4 


1 











1 





2 


1 


3 


1 


Cases 


149 


149 


150 


140 


143 


147 


131 


130 


87 


92 


62 


69 


43 


60 


160 


150 


Median 


67 


61 


63 


60 


64 


59 


67 


61 


66 


60 


65 


60 


70 


62 


66 


62 


M.D. 


4.6 


5.4 


6.0 


7.8 


7.4 


7.4 


3.0 


5.8 


4.6 


7.3 


3.9 


7.3 


7.7 


3.6 


4.0 


2.6 


Per cent of C. ) 




















surpassing > 
Median of W.) 


S 


A 


33 


46 


29 


31 


27 


22 


29 





















* Compiled and arranged from Mayo, M. J., The Mental Capacity of the American Negro, 
especially pp. 26-45. W. = white pupils: C. = negroes. 



From this table it may be noted that while the white 
pupils invariably show a higher average standing than the 
negro, the difference in the medians ranges only from 4 to 8, 
and that for all subjects the averages indicate a difference 
of four points. It is further to be noted that about thirty 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



95 



per cent of the negroes reach or surpass the median record for 
the white pupils. In view of these facts it cannot be said that 
the white pupils in the high school excel the selected negroes 
found there to an extent to justify any appreciable differ- 
ences in accomplishment or expectation in high-school work. 

If this is true when comparing whites and negroes, it is, 
of course, probably even more in point when the comparison 
is made between the various white stocks. 

27. Individual differences due to social heredity. One 
important group of environmental forces includes all those 
social customs, conventions, institutions, modes of thought, 
action, and feeling to which the individual falls heir by virtue 
of being born into any given society or social grouping. This 
set of forces we may well differentiate from other environ- 
mental forces under the term social heredity. An impor- 
tant factor causing individual differences in any society, so- 
cial heredity is especially important in such a country as the 
United States where large groups of individuals of widely 
differing forms of social heredity form constituent elements 
of one larger social group. 

According to the census of 1910 the distribution of popu- 
lation in the United States was as follows: 



Table XXXIV* 



1 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


Native white 






68,389,104 


74 4 


Native parentage 


49,488,441 
18,900,663 


53.8 
20.6 




Foreign-born parentage. . . 






Foreign-born white 


13,343,583 

9,828,294 
411,285 


14 5 


Negro 






10 7 


All others — Indians, etc. , . 






04 










Total 






91,972,266 


100 











* Thirteenth Census (1910), vol. i, p. 132. 



96 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

It is a fact not without ^significance for secondary educa- 
tion that only a little more than one haK of the population 
of the United States is of native white parentage and that 
the proportion has constantly decreased for a number of 
decades. This may be noted from the following table. 

Table XXXV* 





1850 
(per 
cent) 


I860 
(per 
cent) 


1870 
(per 
cent) 


1880 
(per 
cent) 


1890 
(per 
cent) 


1900 
(per 
cent) 


1910 
(per 
cent) 


Foreign-born 

Native: foreign-born 
parentage 

Total foreign par- 
entage 


9.7 


12.0 


14.2 
13.8 


13.1 
16.5 


14.5 
18.3 


13.4 
20.6 


14.5 
20.6 






28.0 


29.6 


32.8 


34.0 


35.1 











* Thirteenth Census (1910), vol. i, p. 132. 

This condition apparently more or less affects the number 
of children of various ages who continue their education into 
the secondary school. 

Table XXXVI. Showing the Percentages of CmLDEEN 
OF Various Age Groups attending School — Native 
AND Foreign Stocks: 1909-10* 





Native White 


Foreigri-born 
whites 




Years of Age 


Total 


Native 
Parentage 


Foreign or 

Mixed 
Parentage 


Negro 


12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 


93.1 
91.9 
84.7 
71.5 
53.7 
38.0 
25.1 


92.0 
90.9 
85.3 
75.0 
58.9 
42.9 
28.6 


95.6 
94.2 
83.1 
63.5 
41.8 
26.7 
16.9 


90.2 
87.7 
71.6 
46.2 
23.7 
12.2 
6.8 


70.1 
68.4 
62.3 
53.9 
41.5 
29.0 
17.9 



* Thirteenth Census (1910), vol. i, p. 1099. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 97 

It is, of course, in the field of derived and acquired in- 
terests, attitudes, ideals, customs, standards, modes of 
thought, action, and feeling, that we may expect to find the 
greatest differences among secondary-school pupils due to 
differences in social heredity. It is probable that English, 
American, Russian, Italian, French, Hebrew, and other 
races do not differ materially in original tendencies and ca- 
pacities. It is obvious, however, that they do differ materi- 
ally in acquired interests, attitudes, and the like. In general 
we may say that individual differences among secondary- 
school pupils due to biological heredity are relatively ujaima^- 
portant, but that individual differences due to social heredity 
are great and important. The greater the number of groups 
of differing social heredity combined in any one society and 
the greater the differences in the customs, ideals, standards, 
modes of thought, action, and feeling of the various groups 
thus combined, the greater the individual differences we 
may expect to find due to the factor of social heredity and 
the more important they become. In 1850 the population 
of the United States, while by no means homogeneous, 
nevertheless comprised a relatively small number of differ- 
ent nationalities, and those nationalities were for the most 
part such as could be classified as ** English-speaking " or, 
at least, as in general represented the social ideals, etc., 
of Northern Europe. Within the past half-century or less 
that condition has been modified rapidly, as may be seen 
from Table XXXVII. 

Division of the foreign-born population into English- 
speaking and non-English-speaking groups is here made not 
merely to emphasize the language factor, important though 
it is, but also because such groupings indicate in the case of 
the English-speaking population social heredity which is 
roughly homogeneous and similar to the basic American 
stock, and in the case of the non-English-speaking popula- 



98 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table XXXVII. Distribution of the Foreign-Born 
Population * 



United States: English-speaking. 
Non-English speaking 



Massachusetts: English-speaking. 
Non-English speaking 



1850 


1870 


1890 


66.3 


56.0 


42.4 


33.7 


44.0 


57.6 


95.2 


93.4 


71.7 


4.8 


6.6 


28.3 



1910 



28.1 
71.9 

47.5 
52.5 



* Compiled and arranged from data given in the Thirteenth Census (1910). 

tion, forms of social heredity which differ from that of the 
basic American stock and are decidedly heterogeneous. In 
the one case the integration of American society is relatively 
easy: in the other it is very difficult. In the case of the 
English-speaking population the general stimulus of life in 
American society may, perhaps, be rehed upon to contribute 
extensively to the development of that degree of homogene- 
ity, of unity and unanimity, necessary for the permanence 
of American institutions. In the case of widely differenti- 
ated foreign stocks such as are represented by the non- 
English-speaking groups, it is probable that the school must 
be relied on to a much greater extent, involving a longer 
period of education and an education which should aim 
definitely toward the integration of large groups of different 
forms of social heredity. 

It has frequently been thought that the problems arising 
out of immigration are concerned largely with elementary 
education. Important as those problems are for elementary 
education they are by no means confined to it. Numerous 
important problems are also involved for secondary edu- 
cation. It has long been recognized that some of the grav- 
est problems arising out of immigration center around the 
second generation of aliens. The first generations of aliens 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



99 



bring with them from their native lands ideals, standards, 
habits of thought, feeling, and action, which, to be sure, 
differ from our own and from each other, but which are, 
nevertheless, good ideals, standards, and habits for the most 
part. Good or bad they are controlling forces in the lives of 
immigrants. The second generation abandon the standards, 
ideals, and habits of their parents and frequently fail to 
replace them with American traits. This is the group which 
tends in increasing numbers to reach the secondary school 
and it forms a larger group than is generally recognized. 
Thus in 1908 it was found that 55.7 per cent of the pupils in 
the high schools of New York City were of foreign parentage, 
and that more than fifty different countries were represented 
by high-school pupils.^ 

In the following table are presented figures showing the 
parentage of school children in Worcester, Massachusetts, 
for two decades. 

Table XXXVm* 



Parenit horn in 



United States 

Canada 

Ireland 

England 

Sweden 

Russia 

Italy 

Finland 

All others 

Totals... 

United States 
All others .... 



1895 


1900 


1905 


1910 


7,183 

1,230 

3,136 

815 


8,576 

1,752 

3,339 

923 


8,703 

1,356 

2,952 

825 


8,424 

1,268 

2,502 

760 


1,684 
321 


2,555 
713 
156 


2,837 

1,237 

258 


2,647 

2,031 

569 




117 


170 


335 


886 


1,002 


1,090 


1,254 


15,255 


19,133 


19,428 


19,790 


47.1% 
52.9% 


44.8% 
55.2% 


44.8% 

55.2% 


42.6% 
57.4% 



1915 



9,486 
1,440 
2,490 

833 
2,716 
3,526 
1,150 

527 
1,617 



23,785 

39.9% 
60.1% 



* Sixty-eighth Annual Report of the Public Schools of Worcester, Massachusetts (1916), 
p. 555. 

^ Van Denburg, J. K., Causes of Elimination of Students in Public 
Secondary Schools of New York City, po. 32-38. 



100 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Such figures as those given in this table (and the situation 
is by no means extreme in Worcester) suggest the impor- 
tance of recognizing differences among school children in 
social heredity. They emphasize the importance of some 
phases of the work of the secondary school which are de- 
signed to operate as integrating forces. 

28. Individual differences due to environment. It is un- 
fortunately true that pupils receiving the benefits of sec- 
ondary education are selected on the basis of economic and 
social status as well as, if not more than, on the basis of in- 
tellectual fitness. It is also unfortunately true that for many 
pupils who do attend the secondary school, conditions of the 
home and community environment are such as to handicap 
them seriously in their studies. The complexity of environ- 
mental conditions precludes any satisfactory analysis other 
than for special localities. Here we have three studies which 
afford us more or less knowledge. 

HoUey ^ made a study of the pupils in the Decatur, Illi- 
nois, High School, dividing 198 families investigated into 
three groups as follows: Group I: those from which all the 
older children had completed the high-school course (78 
families, 72 per cent of 334 children who had secured a high- 
school education); Group II: those from which none of the 
older children had completed the high-school course (59 
families, 57 per cent of the 308 children who had not finished 
high school); Group III: those in which some of the older 
children had graduated from the high school, while some 
had not graduated. By the questionnaire method Groups 
I and II were compared with the following results : 

1 HoUey, C. E., The Influence of Family Income and Other Factors on 
High-School Attendance. (Pamphlet published by the University of Illinois, 
School of Education, Seminary in Educational Administration.) Cf . HoUey, 
C. E., "The Relationship between Persistence in School and Home Condi- 
tions," Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 
part n. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



101 



Environmental Circumstance 



Group I 



Group II 



r\ X- r f xv ) i Chiefly professional } ( Chiefly artisan, semi- 

a. Occupation of father ^ ^ ^^ coiUercial. \ \ or un-skilled. 



12 years: 60 % had 
high school edu- 
cation. 



$2,000 

27.50 

Frequently 
271 



8 years: 71-74% not 
[ further than eighth 
grade. 

$1,350 

20.00 

Infrequently 
83 



6. Median years educa- 
tion of parents 

c. Yearly income (me- 

dian) 
Monthly rental (me- 
dian) 

d. Good magazines 
Books in library (me- 
dian) 

While it is clear that economic status is an important factor in 
determining whether, in the community that we studied, a child 
shall or shall not receive a high school education, it does not follow 
that economic status is directly correlated with intellectual ability. 
In so far as mental ability is measured by standing in high school 
subjects, the differences in ability between children of the two 
groups are insignificant. The average semester's grade for children 
of Group I was 85.1 per cent; for children of Group II, 84 per cent. 
A difference so slight as this could justify only the conclusion that, 
measured by this standard, the two groups are of approximately 
equal ability. 

On this last point raised by HoUey we must remember 
that if economic and other environmental conditions operate 
to exclude poorer children from the secondary school, then 
those poorer children who do go to the secondary school 
probably represent a somewhat higher selection of p>oorer 
children. 

Van Denburg's study of conditions found in the case of 
high-school pupils in New York City indicate conditions 
somewhat different from those found in Decatur by Holley. 
The monthly rentals paid by the families of 420 children 
entering the high schools in 1908 were distributed as given 
in Table XXXIX. 



102 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table XXXIX* 



Monthly rental 


Per cent of pupils 


Monthly rental 


Fer cent of pupila 


$10-$15 
20- 25 
30- 35 


45 
26 
12 


$40-$45 
50- 55 
60- 65 
70-150 


6 

2 
2 
7 



* Van Denburg, J. K., Causes of the Elimination of Students in Public Secondary Schools 
of New York City, pp. 7&-83. 

On the whole the economic status of these pupils (so far as is 
shown by the monthly rental) seems to be only a slight factor in the 
determination of length of stay in the high school. . . . We saw in 
an earlier section that children remain through the elementary 
school and enter high school from homes of the most meager finan- 
cial resources. We now find that such children remain in high 
school as long or nearly as long as do children whose parents pay 
$40 or more a month for rent.^ 

Van Denburg also found that 827 fathers of high school 
pupils were engaged in 126 different occupations, an average 
of about seven to each occupation listed and seven occupa- 
tions listed enrolling twenty-five or more fathers.^ Of older 
brothers and sisters 556 were engaged in 164 listed occupa- 
tions other than study in school or college. Of those, two 
occupations only engaged twenty-five or more brothers or 
sisters.^ The occupations of fathers are summarized by Van 
Denburg. (Table XL.) 

The figures shown in Table XL may be compared with 
the figures obtained by King for 1123 high-school pupils in 
three cities in Iowa. (Table XLI.) 

With references to most categories the likenesses for the 

1 Van Denburg, J. K., op. ciL, pp. 113-14. 2 /^^'^^.^ pp. 3^.48. 

2 Ibid., pp. 59-68. These and other quotations from Van Denburg are 
made with the permission of the publishers. Teachers College Bureau of 
Publications. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



103 



Table XL. Occupations of Fathj^rs (New York City)* 



Occupations 


Total number 


High School 1906 
(per cent) 


Population 
1900 (per cent) 


Professional 


36 

36 

150 

61 

52 

106 

227 

35 

41 

46 

36 


4.4 

4.4 

18.1 

7.4 

6.3 

12.8 

27.5 

4.2 

4.9 

5.5 

4.4 


2.3 


Semi-professional 


3.7 


Artisans — contractors 

Federal and city employees . . . 
Clerical helpers 


16.4 

3.6 

11.2 


Office workers, agents 

Manufacturer and trade 

Printing trades 


7.9 

28.1 
2 5 


Personal service 


7 7 


Transportation 


6 6 


Factory — labor 


10 






Total 


826 


100.0 


100.0 



* Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., pp. 44, 128. 



two types of communities are greater than one would ex- 
pect. The greatest difference, of course, is found in the case 
of agriculture in the lowan cities. (Table XLI.) 

29. Individual differences in interests, etc. Individual 
differences among secondary-school pupils due to differ- 
ences in interests, Hfe aims, school motives, and the like, are 
obviously important factors in the work of the secondary 
school. They are, to be sure, the resultants of differences in 
heredity and environment, but deserve special attention here 
as important elements determining both theory and prac- 
tice in the secondary school. The multiplexity and com- 
plexity of those differences preclude any extensive analysis. 
However, the occupational preferences of secondary-school 
pupils and their attitudes toward school work are important 
enough to justify brief consideration.^ 

1 For some excellent studies see King, I., The High-School Age, chaps, 
x-xn. 



104 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table XLI. Fathers' Occupations of 1123 Pupils in Iowa, 
1913, AND OF 1004 IN New York City, 1906* 



Occupations 


Iowa 


New York City 


Number 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Number 


Agriculture 


151 
268 
156 
92 
75 
93 
19 
30 
40 
18 
10 
51 
63 
17 
40 


13.46 

23.88 
13.80 
8.20 
6.69 
8.29 
1.70 
2.68 
3.57 
1.60 
.89 
4.54 
5.62 
1.51 
3.57 


0.00 
22.62 
14.80 
10.57 
4.59 
3.60 
3.60 
5.19 
6.09 
4.09 
3.50 
3.60 
8.86 
1.30 
7.57 





Trade and Manufacturing .... 
Artisans 


227 
150 


Middlemen and oflSce workers. 
Transportation 


106 

46 


Professional 


36 


Semi-professional 


36 


Clerical 


52 


City and federal employees . . . 
Personal service 


61 
41 


Printing trades 


35 


Unclassified 


36 


Blank 


89 


Retired 


13 


Dead 


76 






Total 


1,123 


100.00 


100.00 


1,004 







* King, I., The High-School Age, p. 159. Quoted with the permission of the author and 
his publishers, The Bobbs-MerriU Company. 

Van Denburg secured data from 382 boys and 620 girls 
entering the high schools of New York City in answer to the 
question: " What do you expect to do for a living? " Of the 
boys 156 (41 per cent) made no choice, 15 (4 per cent) made 
a partial choice, 211 {55 per cent) made a somewhat definite 
choice. Of the girls 316 (51 per cent) made no choice, 26 
(about 4 per cent) expected to go to college, and 278 (45 per 
cent) made a somewhat definite choice.^ The distribution 
of occupations was very wide and scattering. Occupations 
chosen by two or more per cent of those who expressed a 
choice are shown in Table XLII. 

^ Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit, pp. 49-57. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 
Table XLII* 



105 



Boys 



Occupations 



Architect 

Business 

Electrician 

Engineer 

Engineer, civil 

Engineer, electrical 

Engineer, mechanical 

Law 

Medicine 

Teacher 

Miscellaneous trade 

Miscellaneous construction. 
Scattering 

Total 



No. 



7 
36 

9 

5 
39 
27 

5 
24 

7 
11 

8 
14 
19 



211 



Per cent 



3.3 
17.0 

4.2 

2.3 
18.4 
12. 

2. 
11 

3. 

5 



3.7 
6.6 
9.0 



100.0 



Oirla 



Occupations 


No. 


Bookkeeper .... 


9 


Designer 


6 


Dressmaker. . . . 


7 


Musician 


7 


Stenographer . . . 


46 


Teacher, school. 


167 


Teacher, music. 


12 


Scattering 


24 


Total 


278 



Per cent 



3.2 
2.1 

2.5 
2.5 
16.9 
60.0 
4.3 
8.6 



100.0 



* Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., pp. 51, 55. Slight percentage inaccuracies in original tables 
uncorrected. 

King compares the figures for the pupils in the high schools 
of New York City with those for three fairly large high 
schools in Iowa and also gives figures for three small high 
schools in Iowa. (Table XLIII.) 

The fact that approximately one half of the pupils enter- 
ing the New York City high schools were as yet undecided 
as to their future vocations is indicative of the fact that the 
work of the elementary school has not been able to develop 
life interests, and that in most of those cases such dominant 
interests will be formed during attendance at the secondary 
school. Hence emphasis is placed on the work of the first 
years of the secondary-school course as affording opportu- 
nity for the discovery of interests and their cultivation. King 
found that more than three quarters of pupils in all grades 
of three Iowa high schools had decided on definite vocations.* 
1 King, I., The Eigh-ScJwol Age, p. 162. 



106 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table XLIII. Vocations chosen by Pupils in the High 
Schools of Iowa and of New York City* 



Occupations chosen 


Three large 

high schools in 

Iowa 


Three small 

high schools in 

Iowa 


New York City 
high schools 




Boys 


Girls 


Boys 


Girls 


Boys 


Girls 


Teaching 


13 
94 
16 
32 
34 


261 
85 

3 

4 
23 

'22 
8 

11 
6 
1 
5 

* 6 


2 

17 

1 

'35 
3 

"4 


69 

io 

6 


11 

78 

4 

24 

1 

"7 

36 

1 

2 
3 

2 

3 

i 

"'7 


168 


Engineering 




Stenography and bookkeeping. . . . . 
Law 


55 

2 


Farming 




Nursing 




Medicine 


30 
33 


1 


Business 


4 


Music 


19 


Dentistry 


8 
8 
16 
8 
8 
5 




Pharmacy 


1 


Salesman 




Mechanic 




Army and navy 




Labor 




Domestic science 

Housekeeping 


"2 


Librarian 




3 


Physical training 


1 
5 
6 
6 


1 






Office work 


2 


Architecture 




Millinery 


2 








Totals 


323 


459 


62 


85 


180 


260 







* King, I.. The High-School Age, pp. 163-64. 



Van Denburg and King have collected valuable data con- 
cerning the attitudes assumed by high school pupils toward 
the work of the secondary school. Their figures are pre- 
sented in the following tables: 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



107 



Table XLIV. Pupils' Estimates of the Value of a High- 
School Course* 

a. New York City: "Do you consider a high-school education necessary 
for the realization of your plans for the future?" 



Boys. 
Girls . 
Both. 



Numbers 



Toted 



382 

620 

1,002 



Yea 



215 
255 

470 



Doubtful 



66 
135 
201 



No 



101 
230 
331 



Per cerUa 



Yea 



56 
41 

47 



Doubtful 



17 
22 
20 



No 



27 
37 
33 



b. lowan Cities 


: " Are four years i 


n high school necessary fc 


r your purpose? '* 




Numbers 


Per cents 




Total 


Yes 


Uncertain 


No 


Yes 


Uncertain 


No 


Boys 


534 

533 

1,067 


354 
336 
690 


87 

84 

171 


93 
113 
206 


66 
63 
66 


16 
16 
16 


18 


Girls 


21 


Both 


18 







* Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., pp. 69-72; King, I., op. cit., p. 166. 



Table XLV. Pupils' Intentions of staying Four Years in 

High School f 
a. New York City: "Do you intend to complete your high-school course? " 







Numbers 




Per cents 




Total 


Yes 


Doubtful 


No 


Yes 


Doubtful 


No ■ 


Boys 


382 

620 

1,002 


207 
316 
523 


115 
179 
294 


60 
125 
185 


54 
51 
52 


30 
29 
29 


16 


Girls 


20 


Both 


19 







t Van Denburg, J. K., loc. cit.; King, I,, loc. cit. 



108 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

b. lowan Cities: "Do you intend to spend four years in high school?" 





Numbers 


Per cents 




Total 


Yes 


Uncertain 


No 


Yes 


Uncertain 


No 


Bovs 


548 

614 

1,162 


470 

534 

1,004 


34 
33 
67 


44 
47 
91 


85 
87 

87 


7 
5 
5 


8 


Girls 


8 


Both 


8 







Table XLVI.* 
lowan Cities: "Is a college education necessary for your purpose?' 





Numbers 


Per cents 




Total 


Yes 


Uncertain 


No 


Yes 


Uncertain 


No 


Boys 


537 

617 

1,154 


337 
297 
634 


87 
114 
201 


113 
206 
319 


63 
48 
55 


16 
19 
17 


21 


Gii'ls 


33 


Both 


28 







* King, I., loc. cit. 

30. Individual differences due to sex. In the United 
States it is the general practice to group boys and girls to- 
gether for purposes of administration and instruction, excep- 
tions to this practice betug common only iu private second- 
ary schools and in certain large cities. In most foreign coim- 
tries the segregation of boys and girls is the general rule in 
the secondary schools. Whether coeducation or segregation 
be the practice important problems for secondary education 
arise out of the differences due to sex. In the case of segrega- 
tion such problems are somewhat less complex than lq the 
case of coeducation and less concern the individual teacher. 
In the case of coeducation those problems affect every phase 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 109 

of the work of the secondary school. It is, therefore, neces- 
sary to consider briefly certain individual differences in 
physical, mental, and social traits among secondary school 
pupils due to difference in sex. 

Differences in physical traits between men and women or 
boys and girls, due to the sex factor, are too obvious to re- 
quire extended discussion. It suffices to note a few of the 
more important phenomena. Thus we may note from Tables 
IV, V, XI, and XIII that girls apparently approach the max- 
imum of growth in many physical traits from a year to two 
years before boys. From Tables IV and V we may note that 
from about 11.5 to about 14.5 years of age girls apparently 
exceed boys in height and weight, although boys excel girls in 
height and weight at all other ages. Likewise we may note 
that with reference to pubescence and adolescence girls begin 
to mature a year or two before boys with resultant character- 
istic differences. One should not fail to recognize that differ- 
ences due to such physical phenomena are of especial im- 
portance in connection with secondary education, however 
much or however Httle they may affect elementary or higher 
education. Likewise one should not fail to note that these 
physical traits are but shghtly amenable to education and 
that as far as their direct effects are concerned secondary ed- 
ucation must be guided rather than guide. This is not so 
true, however, of the indirect effects of physical traits which 
may, and probably should be, modified by education. 

Differences in mental traits due to sex may best be con- 
sidered under two separate heads: (1) mental processes, such 
as association, memory, etc.; (2) interests, attitudes, etc. 
Data dealing with mental processes have already been pre- 
sented in Tables XIX, XX, XXI, and XXH. In Table XIX 
data indicate that there is apparently httle if any difference 
between boys and girls in their ability to discriminate weights. 
In Table XX data apparently indicate that boys excel girls 



110 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

in their ability to react quickly to a given stimulus. In 
Tables XXI and XXII the data indicate a practical identity 
of ability on the part of boys and girls in association, mem- 
ory, etc. Such differences as are found in any case are negli- 
gible and probably less than differences due to the imper- 
fection of the measurements. Essentially the same results 
(inappreciable differences) have been found in the great 
majority of investigations of mental processes. Thus Thomp- 
son measured men and women students in the University of 
Chicago in forty-five mental traits. In twenty-one of those 
traits the men excelled the women by greater or less amounts. 
In twenty-one traits the women excelled and in four traits 
they were approximately equal in abihty. In the few cases 
where the superiority was marked on either side previous 
general training was quite probable. On the average the per 
cent of men reaching or exceeding the median for the women 
was fifty, thus indicating a general equality.^ 

Courtis measured 1235 boys and 1168 girls in the seventh 
grade of the schools of New York City in speed multiplica- 
tion and in speed reasoning with the results indicated in 
Table XLVII. 4; \^ 

Such differences justify the statement made by Courtis i^ 

In view of the extent to which the sex groups overlap, the fact 
of a small difference in the average scores of the groups need not 
be considered in planning the course of study. 

The same opinion is expressed by Thorndike:^ 

The most important characteristic of these differences is their 
small amount. The Ludividual differences within one sex so enor- 

^ Thompson, Helen B., Psychological Norms in Men and Women, Univer- 
sity of Chicago Contributions to Philosophy, vol. 4, no. 1. Data here taken 
from the resume by Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. m, pp. 
178-79. 

2 Courtis, S. A., loc. cit. 

3 Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. in, p. 184. Quoted with 
permission. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



111 



Table XLVII. Arithmetical Abilities of Boys and Girls 



COMPARED 





(A) 




(B) 






Test 3 (Courtis) 




Test 6 (Courtis) 






Per cent making 




Per cent making the score 




the score 


Score 






Score 














Attempts 


Rights 




Boys 


Girls 


Boys 


Girls 


Boys 


Girls 


B 


.1 


.0 





.1 


.1 


2.7 


4.1 


15 


.9 


.5 


1 


.5 


.6 


9.2 


15.0 


S5 


11.7 


6.7 


2 


4.5 


5.6 


16.3 


23.4 


35 


36.6 


31.0 


3 


13.1 


14.7 


19.8 


20.2 


45 


32.4 


36.9 


4 


19.3 


19.7 


19.8 


16.9 


55 


10.5 


15.1 


5 


23.2 


23.4 


16.9 


11.3 


65 


6.2 


7.0 


6 


19.3 


18.5 


8.9 


5.2 


75 


1.1 


1.0 


7 


9.6 


7.6 


4.0 


2.1 


85 


.4 


1.0 


8 


4.8 


4.5 


1.9 


.9 


95 


.0 


.3 


9 


2.7 


1.8 


.8 


.3 


105 


.1 


.3 


10 


1.2 


1.5 


.6 


.3 


115 


.0 


.0 


11 


.6 


.9 


.0 


.2 


125 


.0 


.2 


12 


.6 


.6 


.1 


.1 








13 
14 


<t 


.3 


.0 


.0 




100.0 


100.0 


.1 


!o 


.0 


.0 








15 


.0 


.0 


.0 


.0 


Average score 
Total cases 


40.1 
1,235 


42.9 
1,168 


16 


.1 


.5 


.1 


.0 




















100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 








Average score 


'5.7 


6.6 


4.2 


S.6 






^ 


Total cases 
1 


1,235 


1,168 


1,235 


1,168 



* Compiled from Courtis,! 
and Apportionment, City of 



Report of Committee on School Inquiry, Board of Estimate 
^ork, vol. I, p. 626. 



mously outweigh the differences between the sexes in these intel- 
lectual and semi-intellectual traits that for practical purposes the 
sex difference may be disregarded. So far as ability goes, there 
could hardly be a stupider way to get two groups alike within each 
group, but differing between the groups, than to take the two sexes. 
As is well known, the experiments of the past generation in educat- 
ing women have shown their equal competence in school work of 
elementary, secondary and collegiate grade. The present genera- 
tion's experience is showing the same fact for professional and busi- 
ness service. The psychologists' measurements lead to the con- 
clusion that this equality of achievement comes from an equality 
of natural gifts, not from an overstraining of the lesser talents of 
women. 



in PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



JS 






'20 



SfS 



I 
I 
I 

; 

I .^ 

i 



Continuous line (. 
Brokem line ( — - 



J for boys* 



^) for girls. 



S iS" 45* 35- ^r S-Jr 65- 75- 



ilini ifl ■» "»W 

SS lor iir li-S" 



FiGiiRE J. Illustrating Table XLVII (A) 



Cbhtinuous line {- 
Broken lino (-• 



■> ^o^ t)oyff^ 




Figure K. Illustrating Tai^ 



ACT^^X" 



VII (B) 



The practical equality of capacity in such mental processes 
as are involved in the studies of the secondary school has 
been sufficiently well established by the experience of the 
past half -century and more of coeducational practice in this 
country. Such differences as are found in the achievements 
of boys and girls in the various secondary-school subjects 
are probably to be ascribed to differences in interests rather 
than to inherent differences in capacity. 

While the differences between the central tendencies 
for boys and girls in the case of most mental traits are ap- 
parently negligible it has been suggested that the varia- 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 113 

bility of boys is greater than that of girls. Thus Thorn- 
dike: ^ 

These facts make it extremely probable that, except in the two 
years nearest the age of puberty for girls, the male sex is slightly 
more variable. From the time of puberty for boys to maturity this 
difference seems to increase rapidly, though the records of marks 
which support this conclusion are not the best of evidence. The 
variability of girls with respect to the age at which any given school 
grade is reached is less than that of boys. The difference is not nec- 
essarily attributable in its entirety to an original difference between 
the natures of boys and girls. 

The evidence for this opinion is by no means satisfactory. 
If, however, further investigation should establish it, the 
greater variability of boys would mean that more boys than 
girls would be found both among the least capable and 
among the most capable pupils of any large group. Ter- 
man's studies of general intelligence lead him to the fol- 
lowing conclusion: 

Apart from the small superiority of girls, the distribution of 
inteUigence in the t^fcexes is not different. The supposed wider 
variation of boys i^UPPPound. Girls do not group themselves 
about the median more closely than do boys. The range of I Q 
(Intelligence Quotient) including the middle fifty per cent is ap- 
proximately the same for the two sexes. ^ 

Differences between boys and girls in interests and atti- 
tudes are probably of far greater extent and importance for 
secondary education than are differences in mental abilities. 
The latter are in all probability very small and their char- 
acter is largely determined by original nature, plus inner 
growth, plus exercise through training. The mental processes 
may be increased through growth and exercise or, perhaps, 

* Thorndilce, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. in, pp. lO-i-OS. 
2 Terman, L. M., The Measurement of Intelligence, p. 70. 



114 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

decreased through injury or disuse. They cannot, how- 
ever, be radically modified in character. Interests and atti- 
tudes are in part determined by inner nature. For the most 
part, however, they may be radically modified and changed 
through the influence of the social environment and through 
training. Hence it is that, even though we assume the es- 
sential equahty of the sexes in all mental capacities at birth, 
the marked differences in the treatment and training ac- 
corded boys and girls before they enter the secondary 
school result in very important differences in the interests 
and attitudes of boys and girls in the secondary school. To 
this consideration must be added two further facts of im- 
portance. Interests and attitudes are determined as well by 
the probable character of the lives which boys and girls will 
follow after leaving the secondary school as by the training 
which they receive before and in the secondary school. That 
those interests are in part quite different for boys and girls is 
too obvious to require comment. The same may be said of 
their needs in life after the secondary school. The second 
fact of importance is that interests are for the most part 
somewhat general until exercised ^^j^ special lines and 
therefore highly modifiable so that ^^^are more amenable 
to the force of education than are the mental processes. 

Differences in mental abilities between boys and girls in 
the secondary school are probably quite negligible. Differ- 
ences in interests and attitudes are great and important. 
Whether or not boys and girls in the secondary school should 
be taught and trained alike or differently will depend on the 
degree to which we wish them to be kept alike or be made 
more alike and the degree to which we wish them to be kept 
or made more unlike. Here Thorndike's comment is in 
point: 

By way of preface to an account of sex differences it is well to 
note that their existence does not necessarily imply in any case the 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 115 

advisability of differences in school and home training, and on the 
other hand, that even if the mental make-up of the sexes were 
identical it might still be wisest to educate them differently. It is 
true that a difference of two groups in a mental trait will theoreti- 
cally involve differences in treatment, but practical considerations 
apart from that of developing the highest efficiency in that trait 
may outweigh the advantages of the different treatment. . . . Let 
us note in the second place that the existence of differences need not 
imply the need of different training, because those very differences 
may have been due to the different training actually received and 
might never have appeared had training been alike in the two 
classes. It is folly to argue from any mental condition in an indi- 
vidual or class without ascertaining whether it is due to original 
nature or to training, i 

In certain phases of secondary education we may be sure 
that the aim should be to recognize differences between boys 
and girls in interests and attitudes by dealing with them in 
different ways with the intention of preserving such differ- 
ences and fostering them. Such would be the case in con- 
nection with vocational interests. In other phases of second- 
ary-school work we may be sure that differences already in 
evidence should be lessened, if possible, through secondary 
education. In any aRnt individual differences among sec- 
ondary school pupils in interests and attitudes which are 
due to sex must be recognized in almost every phase of 
secondary-school work. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Take the table of age-grade distribution of any secondary school. Find 
the per cent each age group in the first year of the school is of the total 
number of pupils in that grade. Compare the data with those of Table 
XXV. Do the same for pupils in the fourth grade of the school and com- 
pare results with those found for the first grade. 

2. Make a table of distribution of the grades received by 150 or more high- 
school boys in any one subject of study. Do the same for 150 or more 
girls and compare with the first table. 

* Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. ni, p. 169. 



116 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

3. Test the eflficacy of promotion in the secondary school as selecting pupils 
by measuring the results of any general test, e.g., an "opposites test." 
(Cf . Whipple, G. M., Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, pp. 445-46.) 

4. Make a list of all the differences in mental traits you believe exist be- 
tween secondary-school pupils of different races or nationalities. Indi- 
cate which of those you believe are due to biological heredity and which 
are due to social heredity or other environmental influence. 

5. What important problems arise for secondary education out of differ- 
ences in social heredity among the pupils? 

6. What important problems for secondary education arise out of other 
phases of environmental influence? 

7. Make' a list of all the differences in mental traits you believe exist be- 
tween boys and girls of secondary-school age. Indicate which of them 
you believe are due to original nature and which to environment and 
training. 

8. In what ways does the factor of individual differences affect the 
general organization and administration of the public secondary school? 

9. In what ways does the factor of individual differences affect the sub- 
ject-matter, teaching methods, and discipline of the secondary school? 

10. Compare the relative standing of the same pupils in three different 
subjects of study by giving each pupil a ranking according to his posi- 
tion in the class (1st, 2d, etc.). How many pupils maintain the same 
relative position in all three subjects? How many fall in the same fifth 
of each class? 

11. Make a study of the occupational interests of pupils in each grade of 
any secondary school. 

12. Make a study of the subject interests of secondary-school pupils. 

13. How may the problem of adapting instrucfla to individual differences 
be attacked in the secondary school? 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Courtis, S. A., in Report of the Committee on School Inquiry, Board of Esti- 
mate and Apportionment, New York City, vol. i, pp. 433-527. 

Gray, C. T., Variations in the Grades of High-School Pupils. 

HoUey, C. E., "The Relationship between Persistence in School and 
Home Conditions," Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the 
Study of Education, part ii. 

King, I., The High-School Age, pp. 154-205. 

Mayo, M. J., The Mental Capacity of the American Negro, Archives of Psy- 
chology, no. 28, especially pp. 12 ff. 

Terman, L. M., The Measurement of Intelligence, chaps, v-vi. 

Thirteenth Census of the United States (1910), vol. i, especially pp. 125-246, 
781-1016, 1097-1127. 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 117 

Thompson, H. B., Psychological Norms in Men and Women, University of 
Chicago Contributions to Philosophy, Pychology, and Education, vol. iv, 
no. 1. 

Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, vol. in, part n. 

Thorndike, E. L., Principles of Teaching, pp. 68-109. 

Van Denburg, J. K., Causes of the Elimination of Students in Public Second- 
ary Schools of New York City, pp. 22-83. 

Whipple, G. M., Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, passim. 

"Woodworth, R. S., "Racial Differences in Mental Traits," Science, vol. 
XXXI, pp. 171-86. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION: ITS CHARACTER 
AND CLASSIFICATION 

I. The Distribution of Pupils: Retardation and 

Elimination 

31. Some illustrative figures. About a million and a half 
children in the United States are receiving some form of 
secondary education at the present time. Of that number 
about a million and a third are enrolled in the public second- 
ary schools. Of the total population one individual in about 
every sixty-nine is attending a secondary school and one in- 
dividual in about every seventy-seven is attending a public 
secondary school. More than one half of the children be- 
tween the ages of fourteen and eighteen are attending school. 
These figures indicate a marked development of secondary 
education within the past two or thr^j|^eQades. 

In so far as the figures in Table XLvIII may be accepted 
as correctly representing the facts of the case they indicate 
that within a period of twenty-five years the number of public 
secondary schools more than quadrupled, the number of pu- 
pils enrolled in the public secondary schools increased more 
than sixfold, and the number of teachers engaged therein 
increased more than sevenfold. From these facts certain con- 
clusions may be drawn: (a) The figures indicate an increase 
in the number of pupils receiving the benefit of secondary 
education unparalleled in any other country. Critics of the 
American secondary school should bear in mind the tremen- 
dous adjustments in organization and administration re- 
quired by the influx of great numbers of pupils into the 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 119 



Table XLVIII* 



Public secondary schools 

Number of schools 

Number of pupils 

Number of teachers 

Pupils per 1,000 population 

Private secondary schools 

Number of schools 

Number of pupils 

Number of teachers 

Pupils per 1,000 population 

All secondary schools 

Number of schools 

Number of pupils 

Number of teachers 

Pupils per 1,000 population, 



1890-91 



2,771 

211,596 

8,270 

3.4 



1,714 

98,400 

6,231 

1.6 



4,485 

309,996 

14,501 

5.0 



1900-01 



6,318 
541,730 

21,778 
7.1 



1,892 

108,221 

9,775 

1.4 



8,210 

649,953 

31,553 

8.5 



1910-11 



10,234 

984,677 

45,167 

10.9 



1,979 

130,649 

12,073 

1.4 



12,213 

1,115,326 

57,240 

12.3 



19U-15 



11,674 

1,328,984 

62,519 

12.9 



2,248 

155,044 

14,026 

1.5 



13,922 

1,484,028 

76,545 

14.4 



* Compiled from Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. ii, 
p. 449. The figures given in the Commissioner's Reports are to some extent faulty, especially 
for the earlier dates, because of incomplete returns. 



secondary school witMa a comparatively short time. Those 
adjustments have by no means yet been completed, (b) A 
specific instance of the diiSficulties arising in this connection 
may be found in the difficulty of providing teachers and 
accommodations to meet the developed needs, (c) The great 
increase in the number of secondary-school pupils is in part 
the result and in part the cause of the extension of the cur- 
ricula to meet the diversified needs of different groups of 
pupils, (d) It is indicative of the need for further adjust- 
ments. Pupils of types not attending the secondary school 
before 1890 now are enrolled in large numbers, (e) In 1890 
more than one third of the secondary schools in the country 
were private schools and they enrolled nearly one third of 
all secondary-school pupils. In 1915 the per cent of private 



120 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

secondary schools had fallen to about sixteen per cent of all 
secondary schools and the per cent of pupils attending those 
schools had fallen to about ten. The increasing dominance 
of the public secondary school over the private school is 
gratifying to believers in a democratic school system. 

32. The distribution of pupils by schools. In discussing 
problems of secondary education in terms of the public 
schools one is apt to err in estimating the size of the "aver- 
age" secondary school. It is well to keep in mind the con- 
ditions illustrated by the data presented in the following 
table : 



Table XLIX. 



Public Secondary Schools and Pupils in 
1914-15* 



Number of schools 

Number of pupils 

Number of teachers 

Average number teachers per school. . 
Average number pupils per teacher . . . 
Average number of pupils per school. 



In cities 0/ 
8000 popula- 
tion or over 



990 

662,004 

25,509 

25 

26? 

668.7 



In other 
communities 



10,684 

666,980 

37,010 

3.5 

18.0 

62.4 



In all 

communities 



11,674 

1,328,984 

62,519 

5.4 

21.3 

113.9 



* Compiled from data given in Report of the Untied States Commissioner of Education 
(1916), vol. n, pp. 449, 456, 457. 



Of all pupils in the public secondary schools of the coun- 
try about one half are in schools the average enrollment of 
which is sixty-two pupils with three or four teachers, one 
for every eighteen pupils. The other half attend schools the 
average enrollment of which is six hundred and sixty-nine 
pupils with twenty-six teachers, one for every twenty-six 
pupils. It is obvious that the secondary education which can 
be provided for the first group is necessarily limited by the 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 121 

small number of pupils attending any single school and by 
the correspondingly small teaching force. This factor of size 
of school is of particular importance in connection with 
problems connected with the differentiation of curricula, 
vocational education, and effective supervision of teaching. 
One of the most important, if not the most important, 
problems of secondary education in this country is that of 
providing anything hke equality of educational opportunity 
in the small high school. 

33. The distribution of pupils by grades. By grades the 
total secondary-school population is distributed as indicated 
in the following table. 

Table L. Percentages of all Pupils in the Public Secondary 

Schools in the Various Grades* 



Grades 


1907-08 


1908-09 


1909-10 


1910-11 


1911-12 


1912-13 


19 13-1 It 


I911t-15 


I... 

n. .. 
m... 

IV... 


43.26 
27.16 
17.85 
11.73 


43.28 
26.88 
17.83 
12.01 


42.89 
27.10 
17.83 
m. 18 


42.79 
26.73 
17.97 
12.51 


41.73 

27.08 
18.21 
12.98 


40.94 
26.94 
18.63 
13.49 


40.79 
26.74 
18.63 
13.84 


40.86 
26.69 
18.46 
13.99 



* Compiled from data given in Report of the United States Commissioner of Education 
(1916), vol. u, p. 448. 



It should be noted that a slight but favorable change has 
taken place within recent years in that larger proportions of 
the pupils are found in the third and fourth grades. This 
probably means that the retention of pupils through the 
high-school course has improved somewhat within the past 
few years. 

In terms of the number of pupils found in the first grade 
of the high school the proportions are as indicated in the 
following table: 



122 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table LI. Percentages the Number of Pupils found est 
Each Grade is of the First- Year Enrollment* 



Grades 


1907-08 


1908-09 


1909-10 


1910-11 


1911-12 


1912-13 


1913-llt 


1911r-15 


I... 

II... 

III... 

IV... 


100.0 
62.8 
41.3 
27.1 


100.0 
62.1 
41.2 

27.8 


100.0 
63.2 
41.6 

28.4 


100.0 
62.5 
42.0 
29.2 


100.0 
64.9 
43.6 
31.1 


100.0 
65.8 
45.5 
33.0 


100.0 
65.6 
45.6 
33.9 


100.0 
65.3 
45.2 
34.2 



* Compiled from the same source. 



c... 



Here again the improvement in conditions after 1908 
should be noted. 

The relatively small numbers of pupils in the second, 
third, and fourth grades of the public secondary school at 
once attract attention and call for explanation. Three fac- 
tors are involved. Larger numbers of pupils begin their 
secondary education each successive year both as a result of 
the actual increase in population and because of the increas- 
ing appeal of the secondary school. Some pupils fail of pro- 
motion, remaining to swell the size of the lower class and to 
decrease the size of the upper class. In the third place, pupils 
leave school before the secondary-school course is finished, 
thus decreasing the number of pupils in each successive 
grade. The last two factors will be considered below. The 
first factor of increased secondary-school population may be 
determined in fart ^ by comparing the per cents that pupils 
in the second, third, and fourth grades were of the number 
of pupils respectively in the first grade one, two, and three 
years before, with proper correction for the differing num- 
bers of schools reporting in the various years. This is illus- 
trated in the following table : 

1 Retardation being assumed fairly constant for the period considered. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 123 



Table LII* 





I 


// 


III 


IV 


Graduated 


"Class" 


of 1910. . 


100.0% 


61.1% 


42.5% 


28.8% 


28.7% 


"Class" 


of 1911 . . 


100.0 


65.3 


42.9 


32.3 


31.4 


"Class" 


of 1912.. 


100.0 


62.2 


41.4 


32.8 


31.4 


"Class" 


of 1913.. 


100.0 


67.0 


46.6 


35.4 


34.1 


"Class" 


of 1914 . . 


100.0 


64.7 


45.5 


35.6 


33.2 



* Compiled, with allowance for the increased number of schools reporting, from Report 
of the United States Commissioner of Education (1914), vol. ii, p. 408. The table should be 
interpreted thus: In 1906-07 there were 288,748 pupils in the first grades of 7624 schools 
reporting. In 1907-08 from 8960 schools 209,265 pupils were reported to be in the second 
grades, an average per school of 23.4 pupils. At that rate 7624 schools would have had 
178,402 pupils in the second grade in 1907-08, which is 61 . 1 per cent of the 288,748 pupils 
enrolled in the first grades of 7024 high schools. 



Even were exact data available concerning the factor of 
increased population annually it is probable that the figures 
given would not be changed materially. Hence the explana- 
tion of the small proportions of pupils in the second, third, 
and fourth grades of the public secondary school is likely to 
be found in the factors of retardation and elimination. 

34. Retardation and acceleration. Pupils are said to be 
retarded when they are over age for the grade in which they 
are enrolled. The cause may be late entry into the school or 
failure to be promoted at any stage of the elementary school 
or of the secondary school. Pupils are said to be accelerated 
when they are under age for the grade in which they are 
found. The cause may be early entry into school or rapid 
promotion at any stage. Whether a pupil is to be considered 
over age, of normal age, or imder age obviously depends on 
the standard which is taken as the "normal age." Com- 
monly a two-year span is taken, assuming ages 6-7 for the 
first grade of the elementary school, 14-15 for the first grade 
of the four-year high school, 15-16 for the second, 16-17 for 
the third, and 17-18 for the fourth. 



124 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Figures for the amount of retardation and acceleration in 
the pubhc secondary schools of the country at large are 
lacking. However, in as much as retardation at any one 
point in the school system affects the work of all successive 
grades the data presented in the following table for schools 
in general (elementary and secondary) are important. 

Table LIII. Median Percentages of the Whole Number 
OF Boys or Girls who were of Normal Age, over Age, or 
UNDER Age (1908) * 



Of normal age 

1 year over age .... 

2 years over age 

3 years over age. . . , 

4 years over age 

Total over age . 
Total under age 



133 cities 


of 25,000 


186 cities o, 


■population or over 


25,000 pa 


Boys 


Girls 


Boys 


56 


60 


54 


20 


18 


20 


10 


9 


11 


5 


3 


4 


2 


1 


2 


38 


32 


38 


4 


4 


4 



Girls 



58 
18 
8 
3 
1 
36 
5 



* Strayer, G. D., Age and Grade Census of Schools and Colleges, Bureau of Education 
Bulletin (1911), no. 5, p. 103. Normal age defined as &-7 for first grade, etc. For an excellent 
later study see Berry, C. S., A Study of Retardation, Acceleration, Elimination, and Repetition 
in Two Hundred Twenty-Jive Towns and Cities of Michigan. 



As indicated by the figures in this table Strayer's investi- 
gation showed clearly that between fifty-five and sixty per 
cent of the pupils in the public schools (elementary and 
secondary) are of normal age, about one third or a little over 
are below the age where they might be expected to be accord- 
ing to their age, and less than five per cent are in classes 
beyond those of children of their age. The majority of those 
reported accelerated were so because of early entrance into 
S'chool. That a considerable proportion of children retarded 
was so retarded because of late entry into the schools is indi- 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 125 

cated by the fact that a relatively large per cent of children 
of ages 6-9 do not attend school. They will enter school late 
and be retarded from the start. 



Table LIV. Percentages of Children of Certain Age 
Groups attending School (1910)* 



1-year span 


2-year span 


S-year span 


Age 


Per cent 


Age 


Per cettt 


Age 


Per cent 


6 


52.1 


6- 7 


63.3 


6- 8 


69.6 


7 


75.0 


7- 8 


78.8 


7- 9 


81.2 


8 


82.7 


8- 9 


84.4 


8-10 


86.3 


9 


86.2 


9-10 


88.1 


9-11 


89.1 


10 


90.0 


10-11 


90.6 


10-12 


90.5 


11 


91.2 


11-12 


90.5 


11-13 


89.9 


12 


89.8 


12-13 


89.3 


12-14 


86.6 


13 


88.8 


13-14 


85.0 


13-15 


79.6 


14 


81.2 


14-15 


75.0 


14-16 


66.6 


15 


68 3 


15-16 


59.1 


15-17 


51.2 


16 


50.6 


16-17 


44.0 


16-18 


36.0 


17 


35.3 


17-18 


28.7 


17-19 


24.1 


18 


22.6 


18-19 


18.7 






19 


14.4 











* Table compiled from the data given in Report of the Thirteenth Census (1910), pp. 310-11, 
1128. 

These figures indicate that from one quarter to one third 
of the children enter school later than the age of six. Too 
great emphasis should not be placed on the fact that only a 
little over one half of the six-year-old children in the country 
were in school at the time of the census. Many of those who 
were six years old at the time the census was taken (as of 
April 15, 1910) undoubtedly were waiting to enter school the 
following September. The figures for age 7, however, show 
that that fact does not entirely explain the discrepancy 
between the number of children six years old and the school 
enrollment for that age. 



126 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

It will be seen that the factor of retardation raises many 
problems for secondary education as it does for education in 
general. Among the most important of those problems may 
be noted the following, (a) Retardation, when due to late 
entry into the school, increases the diversity of age in any 
grade, thus increasing the heterogeneity of the pupil group 
to be taught. When due to failure of promotion, especially 
failure of promotion in the secondary school, it means that 
in many classes pupils are found repeating work in the same 
groups ^ith pupils beginning it. Special classes for repeaters 
are exceptional and possible in large systems only. One 
feature of secondary-school work helps out here, the fact 
that in the secondary school promotion is more commonly by 
subjects and a change of election is possible. The problem 
of the "repeater" is far different from the problem of the 
beginner, even when the latter is retarded. (6) Retardation 
fosters the withdrawal of pupils from the school. When due 
to late entry the age factor tends to lessen the amount of 
education which many pupils can receive, since economic 
factors and other factors affect the amount of time which 
many can devote to education, especially after the end of the 
compulsory age period. When retardation is due to failure 
of promotion there is added to other factors the discourage- 
ment attendant on failure, (c) Retardation means greater 
expense in the maintenance of the schools. Ayres^ in a study 
of sixty-five cities estimated the cost of repeaters to be from 
6.5 to 30.3 per cent of all money expended for schools in 
those cities. The cost of repeaters in the secondary school is 
particularly heavy, since the cost of education per pupil in 
the secondary school is considerably higher than in the ele- 
mentary school, (d) Perhaps most important of all is the 
fact that retarded pupils, whatever be the cause of their 
retardation, represent a large economic and social loss. 
^ Ayres, L. P., Laggards in Our Schools, pp. 96-97. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 127 

Pupils entering school late and proceeding through the school 
at the normal rate must enter on their life's work late with 
resulting loss to themselves and to society. Pupils retarded 
by non-promotion likewise must enter on their life's work 
with the same economic and social loss unless that delay is 
caused by native incapacity and the added time in the school 
increases their abiHties proportionately. It must, of course, 
be recognized that a certain proportion of retarded pupils is 
to be expected and must arise out of the legitimate selective 
function of the secondary school and other divisions of the 
school system. 

The comparatively small number of pupils who complete 
their secondary education in less than the normal time also 
raises some important problems. Assuming a chance distri- 
bution of abilities among secondary school children in gen- 
eral it is to be expected that there are almost as large pro- 
portions of relatively bright pupils as relatively dull pupils, 
and hence that the number of accelerates would more nearly 
equal the number of repeaters (though not of retarded 
pupils). Since a number of factors tend to lessen abihty and 
achievement (illness, etc.) without corresponding factors 
which may tend to raise ability and achievement, the propor- 
tion of accelerates cannot be expected to equal the propor- 
tion of repeaters. Such factors cannot, however, explain the 
large discrepancy at present found. The cause is probably 
to be found in the inflexible machinery of administration. 

As retardation represents a large positive loss so the small 
amoimt of acceleration represents a negative loss — a failure 
to develop large potential values. It would appear that the 
public secondary school is ill-adapted both to the needs of 
the duller pupil and to the needs of the brighter pupil. All 
our knowledge of individual differences justifies the belief 
that a larger proportion of secondary school pupils should 
complete their secondary education in less time than that 
allotted to the "average" pupil. 



' 7 ' T <":-. W 

128 PRII^CIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

35. The elimination of pupils by grades. By elimination 
of pupils is meant their withdrawal before they have com- 
pleted the school course. In any school system a certain 
amount of elimination is always to be expected as the result 
of death, transfer, economic conditions, and the progres- 
sively selective function of the educational system. Such fac- 
tors cannot, however, explain the great amount of elimina- 
tion commonly found in the American public schools. The 
amount of elimination for any particular school system is 
determined with relative ease, but the amount varies very 
greatly. For school systems in general three somewhat 
extensive investigations have been made. Thorndike studied 
conditions in 23 cities of 25,000 population or over in 1906. 

Table LV. Percentages in the Different Grades of Those 
Beginning the First Grade of the Elementary School 



Grade 


Per cent remaining 


Per cent eliminated 


Thorn- 
dike * 


Ayres t 


Strayer % 


Average 


Thorn- 
dike* 


Ayres t 


StrayerX 


Average 


1... 

2... 
3... 
4... 
5... 
6.. . 
7.. . 
8... 

I... 

II... 

III... 

IV... 


(100) 
(100) 
(100) 
90 
81 
68 
54 
40 

27 

17 

12 

8 


(100) 

(100) 

(100) 

(100) 

(100) 

90 

70 

50 

40 
20 
12 
10 


(100) 

(100) 

(100) 

(100) 

95 

74 

63 

51 

39 

22 
18 
14 


(100) 

(100) 

(100) 

(97) 

(93) 

77 

62 

47 

35 
20 
14 
11 


(0) 
(0) 
(0) 
10 
19 
32 
46 
60 

73 
83 
88 
92 


(0) 
(0) 
(0) 
(0) 
(0) 
10 
30 
5X) 

60 
80 
88 
90 


(0) 
(0) 
(0) 
(0) 
5 
26 
37 
49 

61 

78 
82 
86 


(0) 
(0) 
(0) 
(3) 
(7) 
23 
38 
53 

65 

80 
86 
89 



* Thorndike, E. L., The Elimination of Pupils from School, Bureau of Education Bulletin 
(1907), no. 4, pp. 11, 47. 

t Ayres, L. P., Laggards in Our Schools, p. 71. Estimates from graph. 

t Strayer, G. D., Age and Grade Census of Schools and Colleges, Bureau of Education Bul- 
letin (1911), no. 5, pp. 6, 135-36. The writer is responsible for the interpretation of the data 
there given. There is a certain amount of inconsistency between the graph and the figures 
given. Likewise there is inconsistency between the data given, loc. cit,., and that in the Report 
of the United States Commissioner of Education (1910), vol. ii, p. xxiii. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 



129 



Ayres studied conditions in 58 cities in 1908. Stray er stud- 
ied conditions in 133 cities of 25,000 population or over and 
186 cities of less than 25,000 population — in all 319 cities. 
The figures given in the Table LV indicate the general 
tendency discovered by those investigators. Those figures 
must not be interpreted with exactness since many factors 
render them at best only approximate. 

These figures can be considered as approximate only since 
they are based on data necessarily incomplete and vahd 
for the time of the investigation only. However, the general 
tendency, with some allowance for improvement since those 
investigations were made, would indicate that httle more 
than one third of the pupils who enter school reach the first 
grade of the four-year high school and that about one tenth 
only complete the course. 

Since the pailicular problem here is that of the secondary 
school we may interpret the figures already given in terms of 
those who enter the first grade of the four-year high school. 

Table LVI. Percentages in Different Grades or those who 
ENTER the First Grade of the Four- Year High School * 





Per cent remaining 


Per cent eliminated 


Proportionate per cent 
eliminated between grades 


Orade 


^ 








.§ 








.§ 










1 


5 


5> 


•■? 




?? 


1 


•^ 




S 




.■§ 






». 


« 


g 




*. 


P 


g 




c 


p 


g 




-Si 


;a> 






-« 


» 






-«: 


a 








E-i 


^ 


CQ 


t-:j 


bH 


^ 


CQ 


•^ 


bH 


^ 


OQ 


»^ 


I... 


100 


100 


100 


100 











37-50 ! 
54-70 j 
67-75 ' 


























37 


50 


44 


37-50 


-II... 


63 


50 


56 


50-63 


37 


50 


44 


























30 


40 


18 


18^0 


m... 


44 


30 


46 


30-46 


56 


70 


54 


























32 


17 


28 


17-32 


IV... 


30 


25 


33 


25-33 


70 


75 


67 











* Derived from the data given in Table LV. 



130 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

On the basis of such figures and those presented in Tables 
L-LV it is probably safe to say that of pupils entering the 
four-year high school from one half to two thirds reach the 
second grade, from one third to one half reach the third 
grade, and from one quarter to one third reach the fourth 
grade. Of all pupils eliminated during the four-year high- 
school course it is probable that about one half are eUmi- 
nated during or at the close of the first year.^ There is evi- 
dence that conditions have improved within the past five 
years or so and that present figures are somewhat higher for 
retention than those indicated in the tables above for the 
secondary school. 

Since the work of the secondary school is intimately 
affected by the work of the later grades of the elementary 

Table LVII. Percentages in Different Grades of those 

ENTERING THE SEVENTH GrADE OF THE ELEMENTARY ScHOOL* 





Per cent remaining 


Per cent eliminated 


Proportionate per cent 
eliminated between grades 


Orade 


^ 




f u 




^ 








^ 










1 
100 


100 


I 

100 


1 


E^ 


1 


{ 


i3 


& 


§ 

^ 

^ 


1 


1 


7... 


100 











0| 




























22 


29 


19 


19-29 


8... 


78 


71 


81 


71-81 


22 


29 


19 


19-29 I 


34 


20 


23 


20-34 


1... 


50 


57 


62 


50-62 


50 


43 


38 


38-50 


37 


50 


u 


37-50 


II... 


31 


29 


35 


29-35 


69 


71 


65 


65-71 j 


30 


40 


18 


18^0 


III... 


22 


17 


29 


17-29 


78 


83 


71 


71-83 1 


32 


17 


28 


17-32 


IV... 


15 


14 


22 


14-22 


85 


86 


78 


78-86 ' 











* Derived from the data given in Table LV. 



1 Counts, G. S., A Study of the Colleges and High Schools of the North 
Central Association. Bureau of Education Bulletin (1915), no. 6, p. 46. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 131 

school and since a closer relation between those grades and 
the upper grades appears probable in the near future it is 
well to consider this factor in connection with elimination 
in grades seven and eight of the elementary school. (Table 
LVII.) 

It is to be noted that the largest proportionate elimination 
is found between the first and second grades of the high 
school. School conditions foster a relatively high amount of 
elimination between the last grade of the elementary school 
and the first grade of the high school. Nevertheless the 
amount of elimination at that point is smaller proportion- 
ately than the amount between the first and second grades 
of the secondary school. It is not improbable that the large 
amount of elimination found at that point is largely due to 
the difficulty of transition from the elementary school to 
the secondary school, the inability of the pupil to readjust 
himself to the markedly different conditions in the high 
school leading to failure in work and ultimate withdrawal. 
A glance at such figures as are presented in Table II, will 
show that compulsory attendance laws affect grades 7 and 
8 even more than grade I. 

36. The elimination of pupils by age. Nothing is more 
certain than that the older the school pupil becomes the 
stronger is the force of those economic and social influences 
which ultimately will remove him from the school. Up to 
the age of foiu*teen the public schools hold their pupils well, 
aided by compulsory attendance laws. After that age is 
reached pupils leave school in great numbers. In 1910, 
according to the Thirteenth Census returns 90.9 per cent 
of all thirteen-year-old children were attending school, 85.3 
per cent of the fourteen-year-olds, 75 per cent of the fifteen- 
year-olds, 58.9 per cent of the eixteen-year-olds, and 42.9 per 
cent of the seventeen-year-olds. These facts suggest one of 
two things : (1) that the compulsory attendance laws be raised 
without the privilege of employment certificates to the age 



132 PRINCIPLES OF SECONBABY EDUCATION 



100 



BO 



80 



•O 70 
«> 

c 

i2 60 









-^ 




Vft^ 


- 






















■^^ 


% 




















1 


\ 


\ 
























\> 
























\ 


























\ 


V 








/ 


' 










■ 




\\ 








1 














\ 


^ 


^, 






















\ 


::^ 


^^ 




• ./ 




















^*< 



50 
40 
30 
SO 
10 



tn grade 128456781 
PiGuiiE L. Illustrating Table LV 



II SI 17 



100 



90 



"3 70 



S 



60 



50 



40 



dO 



80 



10 













V 






















\ 












' 












Vv 






















'N> 


»v. 




















w 


-N 

•s 


V 




















1^ 

\ 
\ 
\ 




k 
























X 

^ 






















*»»^ 















































Id grade I IZ ZH 

Figure M. Illustrating Table LVI ^ 



XV 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 133 



100 

90 
80 



^ 70 

c 



& 





\ 






















\ 


h 






















% 


K 


\ 




















^^ 


\> 


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V% 





^ 

























50 
40 
30 
20 
10 



FiGUEE N. 



I II lU 

iLLUSTRATrNG TaBLE LVII 



XV 



of sixteen; or (2) that opportunity to receive some of the 
benefits of secondary education be provided for pupils below 
the age of fourteen. The latter plan is a part of the scheme 
for the reorganization of secondary education recommended 
in later chapters. 

When elimination by age is brought into comparison with 
ehmination by grade in the secondary school it is found that 
the older pupils are on entrance to the school the earlier and 
more rapidly they are eliminated. This is seen from the 
results of studies by Van Denburg (Table LVIII) and 
by others. The meaning of the figures in Table LVIII is 
obvious. 

The amount of elimination at different ages in New York 
City was found by Van Denburg to be as indicated in 
Table LIX. The figures indicate percentages of the total 
number eliminated. 



134 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table LVIII. Elimination by Age and Geade in New York 
City High School* 



Age at 
entrance 


Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 
{per cent) 


Graduated 
{per cent) 


Staying i 

years 
{per cent) 


Total 


1st year 


2d year 


3d year 


ith year 


{per cent) 


Below 13 

13 

14 

15 

16 


19 
31 
36 

44 

47 


31 
17 
20 
21 
30 


3 

10 

13 

5 

9 


6 
8 
6 
9 
4 


19 
14 
15 
14 
6 


22 
20 
10 

7 

4 


41 
34 
25 
21 
10 


59 
66 
75 
79 
90 



* Compiled and arranged from data given by Van Denburg, J. K., Causes of the Elimina- 
tion of Students in Public Secondary Schools of New York City, p. 91. la the table 13 years 
means 13 years, months, to 13 years, 11 months, etc. 



Table LIX f 





Per cent eliminated at the age of 


Median age on leaving 




11 


12 

1.1 

0.5 
0.7 


13 


U 


15 


16 


n 


18 


19 

0.7 
0.5 
0.6 


20 

0.0 
0.2 
0.1 


Boys.. 
Girls. . 
Both.. 


0.4 
0.0 
0.1 


13.6 
12.0 
12.7 


21.3 

27.4 
24.9 


26.9 
26.4 
26.6 


20.3 
21.4 
21.0 


11.2 

7.8 
9.2 


4.5 
3.8 
4.1 


14 years, 7.3 months 
14 " 5.4 " 
14 " 6.3 " 



t Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., p. 91. Per cents calculated and table arranged by the 
writer. 

37. Elimination and home conditions. The relation be- 
tween home conditions and elimination is very close in all 
probability. Such conditions are, of course, too complex 
and variable to permit anything like complete analysis. 
Certain features have been measured by Van Denburg, 
King/ Holley, and others. Some of their findings are sug- 
gestive here. 

1 Kmg, I., The Eigh-School Age, pp. 154-84. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 135 

(1) Financial conditions and elimination: Van Denburg 
investigated the amount of elimination found in various 
groups of pupils selected and classified on the basis of family 
income as measured by the monthly rental paid. 

Table LX* 



Monthly 


Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 
(per cent) 


Graduated 
{per cent) 


Staying k 

years 
{per cent) 


Total 


rental 


Ist year 


2d year 


3d year 


ith year 


eliminated 
(per cent) 


$10 

$15 

$20 

Over $20. 


41 
41 
39 
31 


19 

21 
17 

28 


3 

8 
11 

7 


9 

10 

8 

4 


9 

8 

3 

15 


19 
12 

22 
15 


28 
20 
25 
30 


72 . 
80 
75j 
70 



* Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., p. 111. 



Van Denburg states: "On the whole the economic status of 
these pupils (so far as it is shown by the monthly rental) 
seems to be only a sUght factor in the determination of 
length of stay in the high school." ^ Holley, basing his con- 
clusions on a study of rental value of home, personal prop- 
erty assessment, and real assessment, for parents of high- 
school children in Urbana, Illinois, claims that there is a 
fairly high correlation between the economic status of the 
family and persistence in the school.^ 

(2) Size of family: According to Van Denburg a pupil 
having no younger brother or sister stands a somewhat bet- 
ter chance of staying in school longer. His figures, however, 
are by no means conclusive evidence. 

^ Van Denburg. J. K., op. cit, p. 113. 

2 Holley, C. E., "The Relationship Between Persistence in School and 
Home Conditions," Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study 
of Education, part ii, especially pp. 55-62. 



136 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table LXI * 



Having or 
without 


Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 

(percent) 


Graduated 
(per cent) 


Staying 4 

years 
(per cent) 


Total 


brother or 
sister 


1st year 


Sd year 


Sd year 


ith year 


eliminated 
{per cent) 


Having. . . 
Without.. . 


44 
34 


20 

20 


10 
9 


6 
8 


10 
16 


10 
13 


20 
29 


80 
71 



* Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., p. 93. Calculated and arranged by the writer. 

(3) Nationality of father: Apparently little can be inferred 
from the data presented by Van Denburg concerning the 
nationahty of the father. 

Table LXIIf 



Nationality 


Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 
(per cent) 


Graduated 
(per cent) 


Staying 4 

years 
(per cent) 


Total 
eliminated 
(per cent) 


of father 


1st year 


Sd year 


3d year 


Uh year 


American.. 
German. . . 
Russian . . . 

Irish 

AU 


34 
39 
33 
58 
37 


18 
24 
16 
18 
20 


11 

9 

9 

11 

10 


9 

4 
13 

4 

7 


18 
8 

11 
8 

14 


10 
16 
16 
1 
12 


28 
24 
29 
9 
26 


72 
76 
71 
91 

74 



t Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., p. 96. Calculated and arranged by the writer. 

Such data are quite inadequate as a basis for conclusions. 
(4) Occupation of father: Holley's investigation indicates 
that exi>ectancy of stay in the high school is greater for 
pupils whose fathers are engaged in professional and com- 
mercial occupations and less for those pupils whose fathers 
are engaged in artisan trades, in semi-skilled, and in un- 
skilled occupations.^ 

1 HoUey, C. E., op. cit., pp. 19, 75-78. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 137 

(5) Education of parents: Holley's investigation also indi- 
cates that there is a close correlation between the amount of 
education received by parents and the stay of children in 
the high school.^ 

38. Elimination, early intention, and early promise. 
Many boys and girls (together with their parents) have httle 
faith that a secondary-school course will much benefit them 
in the life to which they look forward. This is clearly seen 
from the data presented in the two tables following. 

Table LXIII. "Do you regard a high-school course as 

NECESSARY FOR THE REALIZATION OF YOUR PLANS FOR THE 

FUTURE.'^"*- 



Answer to the 


Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 
(per 
cent) 


Gradu- 
ated (per 
cent) 


Staying 

4 years 

(per 

cent) 


Total 
elimi- 
nated 
(per 
cent) 


question 


Ist year 


2d year 


3d year 


Uh year 


"Yes": 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 

"No": 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 

"Undecided": 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 


30 

22 
26 

53 
48 
49 

38 
42 
41 


19 

18 
18 

23 
20 
21 

29 
18 

22 


11 
12 
12 

11 

7 
8 

8 
11 
10 


14 

9 

11 

2 
5 
4 

5 

2 
3 


9 

26 
18 

9 
10 
10 

9 
17 
14 


17 
13 
15 

2 

10 

8 

11 

10 
10 


26 
39 
33 

11 

20 
18 

20 

27 
24 


74 
61 
67 

89 
80 
82 

80 

73 
76 



* Calculated and arranged from Van Denburg, op. cit., pp. 104-05. 

If, at the beginning of his high-school course, a boy ex- 
pects to complete the course, on the basis of Van Denburg's 
finding for New York City, the chances are approximately 
even that he will be ehminated in the first year, in the second 

1 Holley, C. E., op. cit., pp. 28-32, 39-53. 



138 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table LXIV. "Do you expect to complete youb course?'** 



Answer to the 
questioTi 



"Yes": 
Boys. . . . 

Girls 

Both 

••No" 
Boys .... 

Girls 

Both 

"Undecided 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 



Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 
(per 
cent) 


Gradu- 
ated (per 
cent) 


Staying 

4 years 

(per 

cent) 


Isl year 


2d year 


Sd year 


ifih year 


25 


20 


12 


13 


14 


16 


30 


18 


17 


12 


7 


28 


18 


46 


21 


18 


12 


10 


22 


17 


39 


72 


16 


6 


2 


2 


2 


4 


71 


15 


3 


2 


5 


4 


9 


72 


15 


4 


2 


3 


3 


6 


49 


26 


9 


3 


4 


9 


13 


44 


25 


11 


6 


8 


5 


13 


46 


25 


10 


5 


7 


7 


14 



Total 

elimi- 
nated 
(per 
cent) 



70 
54 
61 



96 
91 
94 



87 
87 
86 



Calculated and arranged from Van Denburg, op. cit., p. 108. 



year, or that he will remain four years. If, on the other hand, 
he does not expect to complete the course, the chances are 
nearly three to one that he will leave school during the first 
year, are nearly nine to one that he will leave during the 
first or second year, and are only one in twenty-five that he 
will stay four year^. If he is undecided whether he will 
remain four years or not the chances are even that he 
will leave during the first year, are three to one that he will 
leave during the first or second year, and are about one in 
eight that he will remain four years. 

Early promise as indicated by records made during the 
first half year of school work affords a fairly good measure of 
the length of time pupils will remain in the secondary school. 
This has been measured by Van Denburg with the results 
indicated in the following table. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 139 



Table LXV* 



Average 
mark 1st 


Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 
(per cent) 


Graduated 
(per cent) 


Staying ^ 

years (per 

cent) 


Total 


half year 


Ist year 


2d year 


Sd year 


Uh year 


eliminated 
(per cent) 


90-100. . . 
80- 89. . . 
70- 79. . . 
60- 69. . . 
51- 59. . . 
0- 49. . . 


6 
17 
20 
39 
48 
61 


12 

20 
23 

20 
18 

22 


12 
2 
11 
14 
11 
8 


6 
10 
10 

6 

7 

4 


11 
14 
18 
18 
11 
5 


53 

37 

18 

3 

5 




64 
51 
36 
21 
16 
5 


36 
49 
64 
79 
84 
95 



* Calculated and arranged from Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., p. 175. 

Much the same situation is found when "early promise" 
is measured by the teachers* estimates of pupils' ability, 
industry, and results. Van Denburg found the following 
figures. 

Table LXVIf 



Division of class group 


Per cent eliminated during the 


Retarded 
(per 
cent) 


Gradu- 
ated (per 
cent) 


Staying 

4 years 

(per 

cent) 


Total 
elimi- 
nation 
(per 
cent) 


1st yr. 

22 
39 


2dyr. 


Sdyr. 


lith yr. 


Estimated ability: 
Highest third . . . 
Middle third 


18 
20 


9 
11 


6 

8 


15 
14 


30 
8 


45 

22 


55 

78 


Lowest third 


48 


18 


10 


4 


16 


4 


20 


80 


Estimated industry: 
Highest third . . . 
Middle third. . . . 


27 
37 


19 
18 


7 
12 


6 

8 


17 
15 


24 
10 


41 
25 


59 

75 


Lowest third 


49 


19 


11 


4 


13 


4 


17 


83 


Estimated results:. . 


















Highest third . . . 
Middle third 


21 
34 


16 

22 


11 
9 


7 
8 


17 
18 


28 
9 


45 

27 


55 
73 


Lowest third. . . . 


49 


17 


12 


6 


13 


3 


16 


84 



t Calculated and arranged from Van Denburg, J. K., op. cit., p. 149. 



^ 



I <i.LA_>C..''''-V---\ , 



rccxu- 



140 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Dynes secured data concerning the grades received by 
graduates and non-graduates which indicate much the same 
condition as that shown by the preceding tables. 

Table LXVII. Grades received by Pupils* 



Grades 


GradvMea 


Non-graduates 


Total per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


Graduates 


Nan-graduaiea 


Excellent. . . . 

Good 

Medium 

Poor 

Failure 


2121 
8464 
4540 

1272 
1037 


85 
81 

72 
64 
40 


370 
1961 
1726 

720 
1564 


15 
19 

28 
36 
60 


12 
49 
26 

7 
6 


6 
31 
27 
11 
25 



* Dynes, J, J., "The Relation of Retardation to Elimination of Students from the High 
School," School Review, vol. xxn, p. 404. 



39. The lure of the out-of-school world. Closely related 
to the factors considered above is a large number of factors 
which seriously affect the stay of pupils in school. In the 
upper grades of the system the school must constantly wage 
an uphill fight against the increasing pK)wer of the "outside*' 
world to draw boys and girls out of the school into occupa- 
tional life. One of the most powerful factors producing early 
elimination in the school arises from the world-old unwilling- 
ness of the individual to forego a present lesser good for the 
sake of a later greater good. The error is frequently made of 
assuming that it is primarily the desire to engage in active 
life which draws boys and girls out of school. That element 
is undoubtedly present in many cases. The real element in- 
volved in most cases, however, is not work but the advan- 
tages which come from engaging in an occupation and be- 
coming a wage earner — the securing and spending of money 
and the increased freedom and privileges which come when 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 141 



the boy or girl becomes a somewhat financially independent 
individual. The boy or girl in school sees his former school 
fellow able to enjoy many privileges and to attain a degree 
of independence not granted to himself. The stimulus to go 
and do likewise is in many, many cases irresistible. 

When the influence of the world without the school is 
rapidly growing, the character of the education provided in. 
the school (especially in grades seven and eight) does not 
afford a very strong counteracting influence. The theory 
may, perhaps, be justified that the character of much of the 
work of the middle grades of the school system itself in many 
cases becomes a very effective eliminating factor. 

89 



70 

^tO Urv<lec.«J«4 




I 










i 














4» Z *] 
















1 






\ 




■^ -». 






«Sfio X 


1 




a. 


1 










V 





0»- 



» » t 



Yea 

Undecided 

No 



1st year 2d year Sd year ith year Graduated 

74% 56% 44% 33% 15% 

69 37 27 24 10 

51 SO 22 18 8 



Figure O. Illustrating the Expectancy of Stay in the 
High School 

Measured by answers to the question: "Do you regard a high-school course as necessary 
for the realization of your plans for the future?" Read £is follows: Of those pupils who an- 
swered "Yes" to this question 74 per cent remained through the first year, 56 per cent 
through the second year, 44 per cent through the third year, 33 per cent through the fourth 
year, and 15 per cent were graduated. (Cf . Table LXIII and Van Denburg, op. cit., pp. 
104-05.) 



142 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



40. Expectancy of stay in the secondary school. The 
length of time different groups of pupils can be expected to 
remain in the public high school may be estimated to a cer- 
tain degree by the figures for elimination which have been 
presented in the preceding tables. On the basis of similar 
figures procured for any individual secondary school it is 
possible to undertake some diagnosis of the probable condi- 
tions to be found in that school one, two, or three years 
later. ^ This is clearly true with respect to groups of pupils. 



70 

?60 
s 

fi SQ 
i 



l^es 



30 



10 









Un^ecidadL 
























Mo 








r 








« 








i 










1 



r- 



Tewli +0 r«wa»v. t v»-Vv»«. K•3^» School 

I ' ' 'I -rt , .1 ■ 



Yes 
Undecided 

No 



1st year 

79% 

28 



Sd year 
61% 
29 
13 



Sd year 
49% 
19 
9 



Ifth year 
39% 
14 
7 



Graduated 
17% 
7 
S 



Figure P. Illustrating the Expectancy of Stay in the 
High School 

Measured by answers to the question: "Do you expect to complete the high-school 
course? " Read as follows: Of those pupils who answered 'Yes" to this question 79 per cent 
remained through the first year, 61 per cent through the setond year, 49 per cent through 
the third year, 39 per cent through the fourth year, and 17 per cent were graduated. (Cf. 
Table LXIV and Van Denburg, op. cit., p. 108.) 

1 Cf. Thorndike, E. L., "Educational Diagnosis," Science, vol. xxxvri, 
pp. 133-42, 258: Strayer, G. D., and Thorndike, E. L., Educational Admin- 
istration, pp. 46-53. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 



143 



It is also to some extent true of the diagnosis of individual 
school careers. The fact that a boy or girl belongs to any 
one group whose school course may be prophesied with 
considerable confidence does not, of course, necessarily imply 
that the school history of that individual boy or girl will be 
that of the group. When, however, an individual boy or girl 
is found to belong to a number of groups all of which indi- 
cate the same general expectancy, the chances must be con- 
sidered great that his probable stay in the school will be 
thereby approximately determined. 



I 
i 

J- 



60 



i<J 



Oi 



<<t je a<rs 



/ J years 






sJO 'O-J'^*-^ 



10 



c- 



»e kA "to rev»MiH t»%Wv€Wii^h ScKooL 



Under 13 years 

13 years 

14 years 

15 years 

16 years 



ItA year 
81% 
69 
64 
66 
53 



2d. year 


Si year 


Iffli year 


Oraduated 


50% 


47% 


41% 


22% 


62 


42 


34 


20 


44 


31 


25 


10 


35 


30 


81 


7 


23 


14 


10 


4 



Figure Q. Illustrating the Expectancy op Stay in the 
High School 

Measured by the age of entrance into the high school. Read as follows: Of pupils under 
13 years of age at entrance 81 per cent remained through the first year, 50 per cent through 
the second year, 47 per cent through the third year, 41 per cent through the fourth year, 
and 22 per cent were graduated. (Cf. Table LVII and Van Denburg, J. K., op. ciL, p. 91.) 



144 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

In Figures O to S are indicated the expectancies of stay 
as determined in New York City schools as derived from 
data secured by Van Denburg.^ Such figures and graphs 
suggest a valuable method of diagnosing the probable school 
careers of groups of pupils and to a less extent of individual 
pupils. 






t sn;' 
^ id. 

cr 



/o 



90-100% 
80- 89 
70- 79 
60- 69 
60- 59 
0- 49 



>0-79;5 ' 



60-W % 



SO'S'3 79 



o-^gy 



€7 f 






4) C n 



Tchl-fd reman w »»•♦♦»< Jit ftkte>ni^ I, ^ 



1st year 
94% 
83 
80 
61 
62 
S9 



2d year 
82%. 
63 
67 
41 
34 
17 



Sd year 
70% 
61 
46 
27 
23 
9 



ith year 
64% 
61 
36 
21 
16 
5 



Graduated 
53% 
37 
18 

3 

6 





Figure R. Illusthatentg the Expectancy op Stat in the 
High School 

Measured by grades received during the first half-year. Read as follows: Of pupils receiv- 
ing an average grade of 90-100 per cent during the first half-year, 94 per cent remained 
through the first year, 82 per cent through the second year, 70 per cent through the third 
year, 64 per cent through the fourth year, and 53 per cent were graduated. (Cf. Table LXV 
and Van Denburg, J. K., op, cit., p. 175.) 



1 The writer is responsible for the graphs. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 145 



Age f 

at 1^ 

Entrance I 

C 16 



High School /' Yes 

Reported I "Undecided 
Necessary ^ No. 



Exipectancy 

of 
Completing 
.the Course 



.2 « 

63 -M 

<D g 

*^ 01 

C «> 



S -a 






^ 



Yes 

Undecided 

No. 



1st Third 
2d Third 
3d Third 

Ist Third 
2d Third 
3d Third 

Ist Third 
2d Third 
3d Third 



g 8 E 

c &5 



IS 



90-100^ 
80-89 
70-79 
60-69 
50-59 
0-49 



Half years 

3 4 5 6 



Chances are 
even that 
Pnpils will 
remain — 
half years 



Median 
Expectancy 



3.8 
8.0 
.2.2 
1.9 



4.8 
2.4 
l.S 

4.9 
1.9 
0.8 



5.9 
2.7 
2.7 

4.4 
3.1. 
1.9 

4.9 
3.6 
1.6 



8.0 
7.0 
.4.5 
2.8 
1.8 
1.2 



12345678 
.Half years 

Figure S. Illustrating Median Expectancy of Stay in the 

High School 

Measured by various factors. Each vertical line represents the end of one half-year term. 
Read as follows: Of pupils who entered high school at the age of 13, one half remained less 
than 3.8 half-years and one half remained more than 3.8 half-years. The chances are there- 
LVIT °T YTT?V^^* ^V ^"^'' entering at that age would remain 3.8 half years. (Cf. Tables 



146 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

II. The Classification of Pupils 

41. The classification of secondary-school pupils. For 
purposes of organization and administration pupils in the 
public secondary schools are best classified on the basis of 
their expectancy of stay in the school and their probable 
future activities after leaving. Two general groups for 
initial consideration are (i) those who are destined to com- 
plete the course, and (ii) those who are destined to leave the 
secondary school before the completion of the course. Those 
who are destined to complete the course may further be 
divided into (1) those whose education is to continue beyond 
the secondary school, consisting of (a) those who will go to 
college, and (&) those who will attend some other institution 
of higher education; and (2) those whose formal education 
is to end at the close of the secondary-school course. Those 
who will not complete the secondary-school course may 
be divided into groups of (1) those who will remain not more 
than one year, (2) those who will remain one year but not 
more than two years, and (3) those who will remain two 
years but not more than three years. It is obvious that the 
needs of these various groups differ noticeably and that their 
different needs call for forms of education differing in some 
respects. The composition of the several groups and their 
proportionate importance are considered in the following 
sections. 

42. Pupils completing the course. The secondary school 
was largely a school preparing its pupils for higher education 
until toward the close of the nineteenth century. During the 
last decade of the nineteenth century and the beginning of 
the present century there has been a marked increase in the 
attendance in the public secondary school of pupils who 
were not destined for higher education. As a result there has 
been a distinct decrease in the proportion of secondary-school 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 147 

pupils destined for higher education, although the gross 
number has increased absolutely and in relation to growth in 
population. ReaHzation of that fact has led to an under- 
estimate by many of the proportion of pupils going to col- 
lege or other institutions of higher education from the public 
secondary schools. Thus, in 1893 the Committee of Ten 
stated that "only an insignificant percentage of the gradu- 
ates of these [high] schools go to colleges or scientific 
schools," and that statement has been accepted generally 
since that time. It is, however, quite false. In 1915, of the 
graduates of the public high schools of the country, 35.85 
per cent were prepared for college and 16.27 per cent were 
prepared for other higher institutions, making a total of 
approximately one haK of the graduates of our pubhc high 
schools prepared for higher education in that year.^ For 
several years the proportion has been approximately the 
same. 

If we assume that approximately one third of pupils 
entering the first grade of the high school are graduated, 
the figures above given would indicate that about one sixth 
of the pupils who enter the secondary school are destined to 
enter some higher institution and that about one sixth are 
destined to close their education at the end of the second- 
ary-school course. Since about one third of the graduates 
of the public secondary schools go to college, approximately 
one ninth of those who enter the secondary school must be 
destined to go to college. On the same basis approximately 
one eighteenth of those who enter the secondary school 
must be considered as destined to enter some higher in- 
stitution other than the college — for the most part the 
normal schools. 

Since about two thirds of those who enter the first grade 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. ii, 
pp. 454-55. 



148 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of the four-year high school reach the second grade, and since 
about one third of those who enter the first grade of the high 
school are destined to graduate, it follows that about one half 
of all pupils in the second grade of the high school are des- 
tined to graduate. From these figures we find that of all 
pupils in the second grade of the high school approximately 
one quarter will enter higher institutions, about one sixth 
entering college and about one twelfth going to other insti- 
tutions. By a similar line of reasoning we may estimate 
figures for the third grade of the high school. Figures for the 
fourth grade for all practical purposes may be assumed to 



Table LXVIII. Percentages of Different Groups of Pupils 
IN THE Various Grades of the Public High School * 



Groups 



I. Destined to be graduated 

1. Going to higher institutions 

a. Going to college 

h. Going to other higher institutions 

2. Graduating but not continuing education 

II. Pupils destined not to be graduated 

1. Staying one year or less 

2. Staying more than 1 year, not more than two . . 

3. Staying more than 2 years, not more than three 



Gradei 



S3. 3 
16.6 
11.1 
5.5 
16.7 
66.6 
33.3 
20.0 
10.0 



// III IV 



50.0 
25.0 
16.6 
8.4 
25.0 
50.0 

35.0 
14.0 



66.6 
33.3 
22.2 
11.1 
33.3 
33.4 



33.4 



100.0 
50.0 
33.3 
16.7 
50.0 



* The reader is warned against interpreting the figures as anything more than a reason- 
able estimate true for the whole country. Conditions in any particular community may differ 
widely from that indicated by the figures given. An actual study of the figures presented in 
the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for the period 1909-13 gave the 
following figures: 



Groups 



I. Pupils graduated 

1. Going to higher institutions 

a. Going to college 1913. . ......... 

b. Going to other higher institutions 

2. Graduating but going no further . . . 
II. Pupils not graduating 



Grades 



34.2 
17.5 
12.0 
5.5 
16.7 
65.8 



// /// IV 



51.1 

26.1 
17.9 
8.2 
24.9 
48.9 



73.4 
37.7 
25.7 
11.8 
35.8 
26.6 



96.7 
49.5 
33.9 
15.6 

47.2 
3.3 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 149 



approximate those for graduates. Summarizing we may- 
suggest Table LXVIII as indicating the approximate pro- 
portions of pupil-groups in the different grades of the four- 
year public high school for the country at present. 

J, J, JT>e&- Ceityh Ct-oAe. 

J , (0 ^» io 20 46 sro CO 7» 89 30 .J^o 
JTcUal N*^ ^ H 1 1 -- ' f— -** — - ^' - ^i -' ^ 









/ 


z 


3'i 


A 




i» 


A 













\ \ 



\ 


\ 




•^ 


,,'' 




f 
1 










Z 


3-f 


A 






>H 


i-> 


L 















-7^ 



B-n 









^ 


^ 


—3 


e 



;ilIH,f5'cUl — ^ 



■^ 



3-^ 



Figure T. iLLtrsTRATEsro the Proportion Each Group is of the 
Total Number in the High-School Classes — 1913-14 

Shaded portion for those completing the course: 

A. Going to college. 

B. Going to some higher institution. 

C. Closing their education at the end of the high school. 
Unshaded portion for those not completing the course: 

1. Those staying one year or less. 

2. Those staying more than one year, not more than two years. 
S. Those staying more than two years, not more than three years. 
4. Those staying more than three years, but not staying four. 

It is probable that the large proportion of pupils prepar- 
ing for admission to higher education in many high schools 
is indicative of the fact that that fimction of secondary 
education is receiving too great attention and that insuffi- 
cient attention is being paid to groups of pupils who are 



150 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAKY EDUCATION 



destined to leave school early or to end their formal educa- 
tion with the close of the secondary-school course. This 
fact is clearly shown by the fact that in those States where 
the percentage of high-school graduates going to higher 
institutions is unusually large the per cent which the gradu- 
ates are of all pupils in the high schools is relatively small, 
the number of high-school pupils in each million of total 
population is relatively small, and the number of graduates 
to each million of total population is relatively small. This 
is shown in the following table. 

Table LXIX. States arranged est the Order of the Lowest 
TO THE Highest Percentages of Graduates of the High 
Schools going to College in 1911* 



Median per cent of 
graduates going to 
college 

Per cent graduates 
were of all pupils in 
the high schools. . . . 

High school pupils to 
each million of total 
population 

Graduates to each mil- 
lion of total popula- 
tion 



Lowest 
qvxirter 



26.00 



13.94 



11,548 



1,609 



Second 
quarter 



35.00 



11.99 



12,873 



1,543 



Third 
quarter 



42.00 



11.18 



9,408 



1,052 



Highest 
quarter 



53.00 



10.01 



5,977 



598 



Lower 
half 



31.00 



12.79 



12,291 



1,572 



Higher 
half 



47.00 



10.74 



7,737 



830 



* Compiled from data given on pages 18-19 of Bulletin (1912) no. 22, of the Bureau of 
Education and the Report of the Thirteenth Census (1910). Cf. Inglis, A. J., "High School 
Graduates and Preparation for Higher Institutions," School and Society, vol. i, no. 26 (June 
26, 1915), p. 933. 

43. The distribution of secondaiy-school graduates. At 
least two studies have been made of the distribution of high- 
school graduates which are suggestive for our present pur- 
pose. The results of those studies are presented in the two 
tables following. 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 151 

Table LXX. Distribution of 20,389 Graduates from 596 
High Schools in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, 
Minnesota, Missouri, Montaj^-a, Nebraska, North Dakota, 
South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, 1913 * 



Occupations 



College 

Commercial school . . 

Trades 

Farming 

Normal school 

Business 

At home 

Professions 

Domestic Economy, 

Agricultm-e 

Teaching 

Other occupations. . . 
Unknown 

Total 



In cities of less than 
7500 population 



Number 



2,636 
437 
310 
462 
743 
970 

1,775 
331 

332 

689 

1,832 

583 



11,000 



Per cent 



23.75 
3.94 
2.79 
4.16 
6.69 
8.74 

15.99 
2.99 

2.99 

6.21 

16.50 

5.25 



100.00 



In cities of more than 
7500 population 



Number 



2,854 
325 
381 
138 
741 
1,087 
1,316 
342 

143 

182 

1,076 

704 



9,289 



Per cent 



30.72 
3.49 
4.10 
1.49 
7.98 
11.70 
14.17 
3.68 

1.54 

1.96 

11.59 

7.58 



100.00 



In all cities 
considered 



Number 



5,490 

762 

691 

600 

1,484 

2,057 

3,091 

673 

475 

871 
2,908 

1,287 



20,389 



Per cent 



26.9 
3.7 
3.4 
2.9 
7.3 
10.1 
15.1 
3.3 

2.4 

4.3 

14.3 

6.3 



100.0 



* Arranged from data given by Counts, G. S., .4 Study of the Colleges and High Schools in 
the North Central Association, Bulletin (1915) no. 6 of the Bureau of Education, p. 91. 



Of the graduates going to college from 239 out of 333 
school reportmg, fifty or more per cent were from the high- 
est third of the graduating classes. 

Noteworthy are the different proportions of those of the 
highest standing for the several groups. (Table LXXII.) 

Apparently those who went to college and those who 
stayed at home after graduation came from the most schol- 
arly portion of the class in relatively large proportion. 
Apparently those who went to normal school or directly 
into teaching came from the average or below average group 
of pupils. Apparently also those who went directly into 



152 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table LXXI. The Distribution of High-School Gradu- 
ates BY Destination and High-School Standing New York 
State, 1908* 



High-school standing 
average 


Total 
cases 


Went to 
college 


Went to 
normal 
school 


Went to 
profes- 
sional 
school 


Went 
directly 

into 
teaching 


Went 

into 

business 


Went 
into 
trade 


Stayed 

at 
home 


67 


1 
3 

1 

10 

5 

13 

15 

26 

25 

40 

45 

49 

55 

48 

49 

64 

62 

54 

39 

34 

29 

24 

26 

6 

3 

4 

4 

1 

1 

1 

1 


1 



3 

2 

2 

4 

5 

7 

. 2 

19 

10 

15 

18 

20 

18 

28 

15 

16 

11 

14 

11 

14 

3 

2 

4 

1 

1 

1 



1 


2 
1 
3 
1 
5 
4 

16 
4 
9 
9 
9 
6 

13 
5 

13 
5 
5 
7 
3 
2 


1 


2 
4 
2 
1 
4 
3 
2 
5 
4 
2 
2 
5 

1 
1 







1 


1 

1 


1 

3 
4 
6 
7 

10 
9 
6 
5 
3 

10 
8 
6 

11 

10 
5 
5 
4 
2 


1 



1 
1 
1 

5 
5 
4 
5 
8 
10 
3 
8 
7 
6 
8 
2 
4 
1 
1 
2 
1 


1 



1 


1 

3 
1 
1 
2 
2 
2 
4 
3 
7 
6 
4 
7 
6 
5 
4 
1 

1 

1 


1 




68 




69 




70 




71 




72 


1 


73 





74 


2 


75 





76 


2 


77 


1 


78 


1 


79 


1 


80 


3 


81 


2 


82 


7 


83 


4 


84 


6 


85 


2 


86 


2 


87 


1 


88 


4 


89 


2 







91 










93 


1 






95 








97 








Totals 


738 

100.00 
81.3 


246 

33.61 
82.8 


122 

16.60 
81.7 


40 

5.43 

78.5 


117 

15.63 
81.7 


86 

11.70 
80.6 


61 

8.30 
79.6 


42 


Per cent 


5.58 


Median rank 


82.3 



* Table arranged from data given by Shallies, G. W., "The Distribution of High-School 
Graduates after leaving School," School Review, vol. xxi, no. 2 (February, 1913), pp. 86-87. 
Some slight errors of computation in Shallies's tables are corrected here. Apparently about 
twenty-four graduates are imaccounted for in his figures. 



professional school, into business, and into trade came from 
the poorer group in relatively large proportion. This is 
shown even more clearly perhaps from the figures given in 

Table LXXin. 



THE SECONDABY-SCHOOL POPULATION 153 



Table LXXII. Percentage op Graduates of Different 
Grades of Scholarship entering Various Occupations, 
New York State * 



Scholarship 
group 


Total 
number 
in each 

group 


Went to 
college 


Went to 
normal 
school 


Went to 
profes- 
sional 
school 


Went 
directly 

into 
teaching 


Went 

into 

business 


Went 
into 
trade 


Stayed 
at hoine 


84-97 
79-85 
67-78 

67-97 


227 
278 
233 

738 


41.41 
34.89 
23.61 

33.61 


13.42 
15.11 
19.31 

16.60 


1.82 
6.50 
8.15 

5.43 


18.94 
11.51 
18.03 

15.63 


9.25 
12.23 
13.30 

11.70 


3.52 

9.71 

11.16 

8.30 


7.93 
6.12 
3.00 

6.58 



* Tables derived from data given by Shallies, G. W., loc, cit. 



Table LXXIII. Percentage of Graduates Entering Various 
Occupations from Different Scholarship Groups, New 
York State f 



Scholarship 
group 


Total 
number 
in each 
group 


Went to 
college 


Went to 
normal 
school 


Went to 
profes- 
sional 
school 


Went 
directly 

into 
teaching 


Went 

into 

hu^ness 


Went 
into 
trade 


Stayed 
at home 


84-97 
79-83 
67-78 

84-97 


227 
278 
233 

738 


38.21 
39.43 
22.36 

100.00 


28.69 
34.42 
36.89 

100.00 


7.50 
45.00 
47.50 

100.00 


86.75 

27.35 
35.90 

100.00 


24.42 
39.54 
36.04 

100.00 


13.12 

44.26 
42.62 

100.00 


42.86 
40.48 
16.66 

100.00 



t Tables derived from data given by Shallies, G. W., loc. cit. 



44. Pupils destined not to complete the course. Approxi- 
mately two thirds of the pupils who enter the first grade of 
the pubHc secondary school leave school before the close of 
the course. About one third of those who enter leave during 
the first year or before the beginning of the second year, 
about one half leave before the beginning of the third year 
and about two thirds leave before the beginning of the last 
year. Relatively few pupils leave school during the fourth 
year of the course. 



154 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

If these figures be correct it follows that of all pupils leav- 
ing the secondary school before the completion of the full 
course three important groups demand attention in the 
organization and administration of the public high school. 

(1) Pupils destined to receive not more than one year of 
secondary education constitute about one third of all pupils 
entering the public secondary school at the present time. 
In 1913-14 there were 497,110 pupils in the first grades of 
public high schools, about 165,703 of whom were destined 
to end their education at or before the end of the first grade 
of the secondary school. This fact demands that the atten- 
tion of school authorities be directed along two fines. It 
demands first of all that steps be taken to decrease the 
number of those who leave school so early by (a) encourag- 
ing some to proceed further along courses now offered, or 
(b) by providing new forms of education which will encou- 
rage many who now drop out to continue further. It de- 
mands, secondly, that, for those who must drop out of 
school by the close of the first grade of the high school, 
secondary education must be provided such that they may 
be most benefited by their brief stay in the secondary 
school and best fitted for the lives which they must needs 
live. It is obvious that those who must leave school thus 
early are destined to enter industrial, commercial, agricul- 
tural, or household occupations for the most part and to 
five corresponding fives. 

(2) Pupils destined to remain more than one year but 
not more than two years in the secondary school constitute 
about one fifth of all pupils entering the first grade and about 
one third of all pupils in the second grade of the high school. 
In 1913-14 those proportions included about 100,000 pupils 
in each of the first and second grades belonging to this 
group. Here again the facts demand that school authorities 
direct their attention to this group as well as to the group 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 155 

of pupils who would receive but one year of high-school 
education. While the lives of pupils belonging to this 
group may reach a somewhat higher level than the lives of 
those who receive but one year of high-school education, 
these pupils will be much of the same type and the education 
afforded them should differ from the latter more in extent 
than in general character. Such pupils are also destined 
to enter the industries, business, agriculture, and home- 
making for the most part. 

(3) Pupils destined to remain more than two years but 
not more than three years in the secondary school constitute 
approximately ten per cent of the pupils entering the first 
grade, approximately fifteen per cent of those in the second 
grade, and approximately one third of those in the third 
grade of the secondary school. In 1913-14 those propor- 
tions included approximately 50,000 pupils in each of the 
first, second, and third grades of the high school. Beyond 
doubt many of those pupils could readily be encouraged to 
complete the full four years of high-school work. Others, 
however, must be provided for much as in the case of the 
other two groups considered. 

No form of organization and administration of the public 
secondary school can be considered satisfactory which does 
not have as one important aim provision for these three 
groups of pupils so as to provide (a) that larger proportions 
of pupils may be encouraged to extend the time spent by 
them in the high school, and (b) provide suitable forms of 
education for those who must conclude their formal educa- 
tion after one, two, or three years of high-school education. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Show how the rapid increase of the secondary school population has 
affected the economy of the high school. Illustrate specific failures to 
adjust the secondary school to the changed conditions caused by the 
increase in number of pupils and changes in their character. 



156 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

2. Indicate specific ways in which the secondary school of fifty pupils 
with two or three teachers is Hmited in the facilities which it can pro- 
vide the pupils. Do the same for the secondary school of one hundred 
pupils with four or five teachers. 

3. Compare the average number of pupils per public high school in the 
United States for the individual years from 1907-08 to 1914-15. Do the 
same for the average number of each of the four grades. (Cf. Report 
of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. n, p. 448. 

4. What was the nmnber of children of different school ages in 1910? Is 
it true that there are larger numbers of children of a given age each 
successive year? (Cf. ihe Report of the Thirteenth Census (1910), vol. i, 
p. 310.) 

5. Compare the tables of the age-grade distribution for the high schools of 
any two or three cities. Assuming a two-year span for normal age for 
each grade, e.g., 14-15 for the first grade of the high school, what are 
the relative amoimts of retardation and acceleration? 

6. What common forms of administrative machinery interfere with rapid 
promotion in the public high school? 

7. If possible secure data concerning the .number of 'repeaters' in any 
high school and determine the cost of those repeaters, assuming that each 
costs the amount of the per capita cost of the secondary school. The 
actual cost would really be much less. Why? Estimate the saving in the 
case of accelerates on the same basis. 

8. Assuming that the largest age group indicates the number of pupils be- 
ginning school each year estimate the ehmination for grades of the ele- 
mentary and secondary school i-iv for any school system whose age- 
grade distribution is available. 

9. What may be the causes of the apparently great elimination between 
grades I and II of the public secondary school. Suggest remedies. 

10. For pupils at present in the last grade of the high school secure the 
earUest gradings received in their first year of high-school work. Make 
a table indicating the per cent of ehmination for groups arranged accord- 
ing to the different gradings received in those first reports. 

11. For any high school consider the pupils belonging to the class which has 
recently graduated. From their school records classify them according 
to the scheme employed in Table LXVIII. (Compare the tables.) 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Ayres, L. P., Laggards in Our Schools. 

Berry, C. S., ^ Studp of Retardation, Acceleration Elimination, and Repeti- 
tion in the Public Elementary Schools of Two Hundred Twenty-five Towns 
and Cities of Michigan : reproduced in part in the Seventy-ninth Annual 
Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan 
(1915-16). 



THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL POPULATION 157 

Bliss, D. C, "High-School Failures," Journal of Educational Administra- 
tion and Supervision, vol. in, pp. 125-37. 
Book, W.F., "Why Pupils Drop Out of High School," Pedagogical Seminary, 

vol. XI, pp. 204 ff. 
Clement, J. A., "Student Population and Related Problems in High 

Schools," Illinois School Survey, pp. 185-222. Illinois State Teachers* 

Association (1917). 
Counts, G. S., Part ii of A Study of the Colleges and High Schools in the North 

Central Association, Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1915) no. 6, pp. 31 ff. 
Dynes, J. J., "Relation of Retardation to Elimination of Students from the 

High School," School Review, vol. xxii, pp. 396-406. 
HoUey, C. E., "The Relationship between Persistence in School and Home 

Conditions," Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of 

Education, part n. 
Huling, R. G., "Failures in the First- Year High School," Educational Re- 

view, vol. XX, pp. 463 J". 
IngUs, A. J,, "The Distribution of Pupils in the Pubhc High Schools," Ed" 

ucational Review, vol. xlvi, pp. 344-50. 
IngUs, A. J., "High-School Graduates and Preparation for Higher Institu- 
tions, School and Society, vol. i, pp. 932-34. 
Johnson, G. R., "Qualitative Elimination in High Schools," School Review, 

vol. xvni, pp. 380 ff. 
King, I., The High-School Age, pp. 154-205. 
King, I., "The Vocational Interests, Study Habits, and Amusements of 

Pupils of Certain High Schools in Iowa," School Review, vol. xxn, pp. 

165-81. 
Koons, G. J., "Vocational Distribution of High School Graduates and of 

Pupils Leaving School before Graduation," Educational Administration 

and Supervision, vol. in, pp. 358-60. 
Lurton, E. E., "The Disintegration of a High School Class," School Review^ 

vol. XIX, pp. 680/. 
Mitchell, H. E., "The Distribution of High School Graduates in Iowa, 

School Review, vol. xxn, pp. 82-90. 
Shallies, G. W., "The Distribution of High-School Graduates after Leaving 

School," School Review, vol. xxi, pp. 86-87. 
Strayer, G. D., Age and Grade Census of Schools and Colleges, Bureau of 

Education, Bulletin (1911) no. 5. 
Strayer, G. D., and Thorndike, E. L., Educational Administration, pp. 3-53, 

69-73, 165-75. 
Terman, L. M., The Measurement of Intelligence, chaps, i, vi. 
Thorndike, E. L., The Elimination of Pupils from School, Bureau of Educa- 
tion, Bulletin (1907) no. 4. 
Thorndike, E. L., "Educational Diagnosis," Science, vol. xxxvn, pp. 133- 

42, 258-59. 
Van Denburg, J. K., Causes of Elimination of Students in Public Secondary 

Schools of New York City. 



PART n 
THE INSTITUTION AND ITS PURPOSE 



CHAPTER V 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 
IN AMERICA 

45. Three principal periods of development. The history 
of secondary education in America is commonly and con- 
veniently considered according to the three principal phases 
of its development: (1) the Latin grammar school, covering 
approximately the colonial period; (2) the academy move- 
ment, beginning in the latter haK of the eighteenth century 
and extending well into the latter half of the nineteenth 
century; (3) the public high-school movement, beginning 
in the third decade of the nineteenth century, establishing 
itself in the last quarter of that century, and continuing up 
to the present time. These three movements overlap to a 
considerable degree, some Latin grammar schools persisting 
long after the academy movement was well under way, and 
the academy continuing up to the present to some extent. 

The distinction of periods and movements is not based 
on institutional changes alone. The institutional changes 
themselves were the outcomes of real social factors at work 
in American society and consequent modifications in the 
conceptions of the function of secondary education. When 
the Latin grammar schools of the American colonies became 
inadequate for the social needs which developed in the new 
country they disappeared and the academy which supplied 
education suited to those needs took its place as the domi- 
nant institution for secondary education. The academy, 
however well suited though it may have been to the frontier 
conditions of the early democracy and to the laissez-faire 
poUcy of our early government, was not well suited to our 



162 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

later democratic ideals or to later governmental policy. 
It therefore gave way to the public high school. 

I. The Latin Grammar School 

46. The Latin grammar school of England. The earliest 
secondary schools of this comitry were modeled on the 
Latin grammar schools of England. Unfortunately data 
regarding the early Latin grammar school of the American 
colonies are so meagre and fragmentary that any exact 
analysis of the school is impossible. Such data as we have, 
however, show clearly the debt of the Latin grammar school 
in this country to its prototype in England. In both coun- 
tries the aim of the grammar school was preparation for the 
university. The curriculum in both cases was restricted to 
the study of the classics. The specific authors read, the spe- 
cific books employed, and the methods of teaching involved 
in both countries were almost exactly the same. In both 
cases the schools were for those few boys who were destined 
to go to college or at least belonged to the upper classes. 

47. The beginning of secondary education in America. 
As early as 1621 a movement was inaugurated to establish 
a grammar school at Charles City by the Virginia Company 
of London. Definite plans were made for its establishment, 
but the Indian massacres of 1622 and the downfall of the 
Virginia Company in 1624 ended the movement and there 
is no evidence that the school was ever opened. Again in 
Virginia a second movement to establish a grammar school 
was begun in 1635 when a certain Syms left his estate for 
the foundation of a free school. Acceptance of that grant 
was not confirmed imtil seven years later. Subsequently 
records refer to that school endowed by Syms as in active 
operation and an existing institution claims that some of 
the original grant remains as a part of its permanent funds. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 163 

48. The Public Latin School in Boston. The first second- 
ary school in America, of which we have definite knowledge, 
was the Public Latin School founded in Boston in 1635. 
It is a fact of no little interest that the colonists from the 
beginning devoted special attention to secondary education 
and it is possible that secondary education as a public 
responsibility would not so easily have gained its way in 
America if imf)etus had not been given to that movement in 
early colonial days. 

While the Latin grammar school in Boston probably 
represented secondary education at its best in colonial 
America and therefore cannot be considered m. all respects 
as typical of the colonial grammar school, it is not unfair to 
consider it as representing at least the general scope and 
economy of such institutions. 

(a) Control and support: In contrast with the grammar 
schools of England, which for the most part were controlled 
and supported by the Church, by guilds, or by private endow- 
ment, the Boston Public Latin School was established by 
the town. Since fees were regularly charged, the school can- 
not be said to have been free and public in the present-day 
sense. It was, nevertheless, a "town school" and in most 
respects justified its name "public." In the case of some 
other grammar schools bequests were frequently made to 
provide for their support, notably in the case of the gram- 
mar schools endowed by Edward Hopkins in Hartford, New 
Haven, and Hadley. In many schools endowments were of 
such a character that, while the schools remained "public" 
schools in some respects, the immediate control was placed 
in the hands of trustees. 

(6) Aim : The definite aim of the Boston Public Latin 
School was to prepare boys for college (Harvard College 
was founded in 1636). This was the general aim of the 
Latin grammar schools of England and was the general aim 



164 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of those schools in America. It was explicitly so stated for 
the grammar schools of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by 
the law of 1647. 

(c) Curriculum : The curriculum of the Latin School, until 
a very late period (beginning of the nineteenth century), was 
almost exclusively classical and consisted in most cases solely 
of the study of Latin and Greek. One of the earliest known 
complete programs of the Boston Latin School was that 
adopted in 1789. Excerpts pertinent to the present consid- 
eration follow, that as complete a view as possible may be 
given in brief space. 

The System of Public Education, adopted by the Town of Bos- 
ton, 15th Octob. 1789. I. That there shall be one school in which 
the rudiments of the Latin and Greek languages shall be taught, 
and scholars fully qualified for the Universities. That all candi- 
dates for admission into this School shall be at least ten years of 
age, having previously been well instructed in English Grammar; 
that they shall continue in it not longer than four years, and that 
they have liberty to attend the public writing Schools at such 
hours as the visiting Committee shall direct. 
[II-IV deal with lower schools only.] 

Votes of the Committee appointed to carry into Execution the 
System of public Education adopted by the Town of Boston, 15th 
October 1789, 

At a meeting of the said Committee, held Decemb. 1, 1789. 
Voted, I. That the Latin Grammar school be divided into four 
Classes, and that the following Books be used in the respective 
Classes. 
1st Class — Cheever's Accidence. Corderius's Colloquies — Latin 

and English. Nomenclator, iEsop's Fables — Latin 

and English. Ward's Latin Grammar, or Eutropius. 
2d Class — Clarke's Introduction — Latin and English. Ward's 

Latin Grammar. Eutropius, continued. Selectse e 

Veteri Testamento Historise, or, Castilio's Dialogues. 

The making of Latin, from Garretson's Exercises. 
3d Class — Caesar's Commentaries. TuUy's Epistles, or Offices. 

Ovid's Metamorphoses. Virgil. Greek Grammar. 

The making of Latin from King's History of the 

Heathen Gods. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 165 

4th Class — Virgil, continued. — Tully's Orations. Greek Testa- 
ment. — Horace. Homer. — Gradus ad Parnassum. 
The making of Latin continued. 
[Sections H-IV deal with the lower schools only.] 
V. That the following hours be punctually observed in all the 
Schools, viz. From the third Monday in April to the third Monday 
in October, the Schools begin at half past 7 o' Clock, a.m. and 
continue 'till eleven, and begin at half past 1 o'Clock, p.m. and con- 
tinue 'till five. — That from the third Monday in October to the 
third Monday in April, the Schools begin at half past 8 o'Clock, 
A.M. and continue 'till eleven, and begin at half past 1 o'clock, p.m. 
and continue 'till half past four.^ 

No change was made from the purely classical course of 
the Boston Public Latin School until some time between 
1814 and 1828 (during the headmastership of Gould), when 
arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and geography 
were introduced. By 1826 declamation, reading, English 
grammar, English composition, forensic discussions, history 
and chronology, the constitution of the United States and 
of Massachusetts were introduced. In the case of some 
Latin grammar schools such modifications in the curriculum 
were introduced earlier. 

49. The Massachusetts Bay Colony law of 1647. While 
Harvard CoUege had been established by the General Court 
in 1636 and legislation touching on education had occurred 
in 1641, 1642, and 1645, the earliest legislation in this coun- 
try which affected secondary education in any comprehen- 
sive way was the law passed in 1647 by the Massachusetts 
Bay Colony. This law (with spelling modernized) was as 
follows: 

It being one chief project of that old deluder Satan to keep men 
from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keep- 

^ The System of Public Education, adopted by the Town of Boston, 15th 
Octob. 1789. Quoted by Jenks, Henry F., Catalogue of the Boston Public 
Latin School, pp. 286-88. 



166 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ing them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by per- 
suading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and 
meaning of the original might be clouded by false glosses of saint- 
seeming deceivers, that learning may not be buried in the grave of 
our fathers in the church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting 
our endeavors, — 

It is therefore ordered, that every township in this jurisdiction 
after the Lord hath increased them to the number of 50 house- 
holderSj^shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach 
all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose 
wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children 
or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major 
part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; 
provided, those that send their children be not oppressed by pay- 
ing much more than they can have them taught in other towns; 
and it is further ordered, that where any town shall increase to the 
number of 100 famihes or householders, they shall set up a gram- 
mar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far 
as they may be fitted for the university, provided, that if any town 
neglect the performance hereof above one year, that every such 
town shall pay 5 pounds to the next school till they shall perform 
this order. ^ 

In connection with this law certain important facts should 
be noted. The law represented the first comprehensive legis- 
lation for secondary education in America and established 
principles of general educational policy which were of far- 
reaching effect on American education. Therein it is to be 
observed that the school was a "town" or public school, 
although the law made it optional with towns whether fees 
should be charged or the support of the school be a town 
responsibility. It is further to be observed that the curricu- 
lum of the school was specifically defined as one designed 
to provide for admission to the college, which, at that time, 
could mean but one thing — the narrow classical ciu'ricu- 

^ Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New 
England, November 11, 1647, p. 203. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 167 

lum. Still further it is to be observed that the law estab- 
lished a general system of secondary schools. All these 
features were later made to cover the state of Massachusetts, 
which until 1820 included Maine. 

50. Further legal provision in Massachusetts. The essen- 
tial characteristics of the law of 1647 remained the basis of 
educational legislation in Massachusetts throughout the 
period of the Latin grammar school. Laws passed in 1671, 
1683, 1701, 1718, and 1789 increased the amount of penalty 
for non-comphance with the requirement for the estabhsh- 
ment of the grammar school. The law of 1683 provided for 
the establishment of two Latin grammar schools in towns 
of five hundred families or householders. The law of 1789 
provided that "every town or district containing two hun- 
dred families, or householders, shall be provided with a 
grammar school Master of good morals, well instructed in 
the Latin, Greek and English languages."^ This law re- 
mained in force without material modification until 1827, 
but its operation was practically nullified by a law passed 
in 1824 which exempted towns containing less than five 
thousand inhabitants from maintaining a Latin grammar 
school on conditions easily met. Out of 296 towns enum- 
erated in the census fists of Massachusetts in 1820 be- 
tween 173 and 215 towns were required to maintain a 
Latin grammar school according to the law of 1789. By 
the law of 1824 all but seven (Boston, Salem, Nantucket, 
Newburyport, Charlestown, Marblehead, Gloucester) were 
released from the necessity by easy alternative conditions. 
The passage of the high school law of 1827 eliminated the 
Latin grammar school in Massachusetts as far as legal man- 
date was concerned. It is, perhaps, needless to state that 
the law requiring Latin grammar schools had never met with 
even a fair degree of compliance. 

* Laws of the State of Massachusetts, 1789, chap, xix, sees. 1-6. 



168 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

51. Legal provision in other colonies. In the Plymouth 
Colony an attempt was made in 1667 to establish a gram- 
mar school and the General Court decided that each town 
of fifty families should raise funds for that purpose. The 
attempt was unsuccessful. In 1670 the Court granted 
profits from certain fisheries toward the establishment of a 
free school. The county of Plymouth embraced this oppor- 
tunity. After 1692 the Plymouth Colony was united with 
the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the laws of the latter 
were in effect in the whole State. Maine was a part of 
Massachusetts until 18£0 and hence the legal provision for 
grammar schools was the same there as in Massachusetts. 
From 1641-1679 New Hampshire was also a part of Massa- 
chusetts and hence more or less affected by the legislation 
in Massachusetts. When the separation took place a general 
school law was passed (1680) in New Hampshire but that 
and subsequent laws were so neglected that in 1719 a law 
was enacted which was a close copy of the law of 1647 
passed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The law of 1650 
as passed by the Connecticut Colony was an almost verba- 
tim copy of the same law and this remained essentially the 
same throughout the colonial period. In Rhode Island no 
comprehensive legislation came about until 1800. Vermont 
was first settled in 1724 and its first law affecting general 
education did not come until the adoption of the constitu- 
tion of 1777. In Connecticut, in 1666, the united colonies 
were divided into four counties, with Hartford, New Lon- 
don, New Haven, and Fairfield the chief town in each and 
six years later the Court granted to each county six hundred 
acres of land "to be improved in the best manner that may 
be for the benefit of a grammar school . . . and to no other 
use or end whatsoever." And it was ordered, further, "That 
in every county town there shall be set up and kept a gram- 
mar school for the use of the county, the master thereof 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 169 

being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted 
for college." In the other colonies, while partial legislation 
was made at times, no such mandatory and comprehensive 
law was passed affecting secondary education directly within 
the period of the grammar school. It is to be noted that in 
Massachusetts the unit of the school system was the town. 
This was also true of New Hampshire and the earlier system 
of Connecticut. Later the county unit was employed in 
Connecticut. The county unit was also found in Maryland. 
52. The Latin school in New England and elsewhere. The 
Latin grammar school developed first and at its best in 
New England and particularly in Massachusetts, although 
examples were to be found in most of the original colonies. 
Statistics concerning the establishment of secondary schools 
during the colonial period are difficult to secure, if indeed 
the requisite data exist. Small has estimated the number 
of Latin grammar schools in existence in New England up 
to 1700 at about forty, of which twenty-four were found in 
Massachusetts.^ Eight of these had been founded before 
1650. Concerning grammar schools in the eighteenth cen- 
tury Small says : ^ 

Meanwhile (previous to the law of 1789) the term "grammar 
school" had practically disappeared from use, the district-school 
had taken away the central authority, the old form of school had 
been forgotten, and there was fastened upon the state the district- 
school system, which required fifty years of strenuous effort to 
dislodge. The grammar school had practically disappeared from 
New England at the end of the eighteenth century. 

While somewhat exaggerated, this statement is essentially 
correct. Just how much the district-school system had to 

1 Small, W. H., "The New England Grammar School, 1635-1700," 
School Review, vol. x, pp. 513-31. 

2 Small, W. H., "The New England Grammar School, 1700-1800," 
School Review, vol, xiv, pp. 42-56. 



170 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

do with the downfall of the grammar school in New Eng- 
land it would be difficult to determine. Its effect in that 
direction was probably not small. Two other powerful 
influences, however, were at w6rk to interfere with the 
growth of the Latin school. The first was the fact that the 
school was designed for boys only who were preparing for 
college. The law reduced this limitation to an absurdity in 
Massachusetts where at periods apparently more schools 
were required than there were boys entering college in any 
one year during the colonial period.^ It must be remembered 
that the same law hmited the aim. of the grammar school 
to preparation for the university. Hence the social demand 
for grammar schools, in point of number, was far behind the 
legal requirements and the records are full of evidence of 
the constant endeavor by towns to evade the law and by 
the State to enforce it. The second factor interfering with 
the development of the grammar school during the last 
quarter of the eighteenth century was the growth of the 
academy. This movement will be outlined in following 
sections. It may be noted here, however, that the rise of 
the academy was probably as much a result as a cause of 
the failure of the Latin grammar school. 

II. The Academy 

53. The origin of the academy in America. Fundamen- 
tally the origin of the academy movement is found in the 
social changes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
which rendered the existing classical schools inadequate for 
contemporary needs. The breaking away from traditional 
schools was found in England in the rise of the academy as 
early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, in Scot- 
land about the middle of the eighteenth century, and in 

1 Inglis, A. J., The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts, pp. 65-70. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AJVIERICA 171 

America about the same time. This movement was to some 
extent paralleled in Germany by the development of the 
Realschule as evidenced by Hecker's school in Berhn 
(established in 1747), which included in its curriculum, in 
addition to the classical studies, such subjects as German, 
French, drawing, geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, 
trigonometry, history, natural history, physics, and phil- 
osophy. The same tendency is found in the Scotch academy. 
Thus Kerr: ^ 

About the middle of the eighteenth century there was in many 
quarters a desire for schools with a more liberal and practical cur- 
riculum than that in use in the old grammar schools. "Academies" 
was the name chosen for such institutions. They were meant to 
supplement grammar schools by introducing commercial and science 
subjects, but in many cases they superseded them or became their 
rivals. Perth has the honor of being the oldest academy in Scot- 
land. It was founded in 1760. 

For more than two centuries secondary education in the 
American colonies was restricted to that provided in the 
Latin grammar school with its limited classical curriculum 
and its provision primarily for those who were destined to 
enter the higher professions through the college. By the 
middle of the eighteenth century it had become evident to 
many that such a school was inadequate for the needs of 
the American youth and that a broader form of secondary 
education was needed. The basis of the academy movement 
in America was, then, recognition of the need for a form of 
secondary education of broader scope and better suited to 
contemporary needs. 

54. The Franklin Academy in Philadelphia. Nowhere 

did the reaction away from the narrow classicism of the 

Latin grammar school find a more enthusiastic proponent 

than in Benjamin Frankhn. In 1743 Frankhn drew up the 

^ Kerr, J., Scottish Education^ School and University, p. 162. 



172 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

plan of an academy but did not publish it until 1749. In- 
struction in the Publick Academy in the City of Philadelphia 
began in 1751 with its three departments, the Latin School, 
the English School, and the Mathematical School. Shortly 
after the institution was reincorporated as the "College, 
Academy, and Charitable School of Philadelphia" and was 
given the power of conferring degrees. The charter of this 
"college" was revoked in 1779 and the University of Penn- 
sylvania established in its stead. It is evident that this 
academy was a different type of school from any previous 
institution. It should also be evident — and that fact has 
not always been properly recognized — that it was by no 
means typical of the academy as it developed in America. 

It is claimed that the Moravian Academy at Bethlehem 
was established in 1742, the Moravian school for girls in 
Germantown in 1742, and Nazareth Hall in 1743. It is not 
clear that those schools were of secondary-school rank. If 
so they antedated the academy at Philadelphia. 

55. The academy in Massachusetts. The academy move- 
ment in Massachusetts had its beginning in the establish- 
ment of the Dummer Academy in South Byfield and of the 
Phillips Academy at Andover. Although the former was not 
incorporated until 1782 its history dates from the legacy of 
Lieutenant-Governor Dummer in 1761 and the opening of 
the school in 1763. Of the Phillips Academy at Andover 
the endowment was established by the execution of a deed 
of gift in 1778. In that year the school was opened and in 
1780 the academy was incorporated. By 1800 seventeen 
academies had been incorporated in the State of Massa- 
chusetts. Before the founding of the first public high school 
more than thirty-six academies had been founded in the 
State — far more than the number of surviving Latin gram- 
mar schools. The growth of the academy movement in 
Massachusetts may be observed from the foUow^ing table. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 173 

Table LXXIV. Academies incorporated m Massachusetts, 

1780-1870 * 



DnIpJt 


Number 


Daiea 


Number 




New 


Total 


New 


Total 


1780-1790 


6 
11 
11 

8 
32 


6 
17 

28 
36 
68 


1831-1840 

1841-1850 

1851-1860 

1861-1870 


46 
21 
19 
10 


114 


1791-1800 


135 


1801-1810 


154 


1811-1820 


164 


1821-1830 









* Compiled from data given in the Fortieth Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 
Appendix E, pp. 175-347. 

Here it may be noted that, as measured by the number 
of academies incorporated, the period of most rapid devel- 
opment in Massachusetts was 1826-35 when sixty acade- 
mies were incorporated within ten years, as compared with 
forty in the preceding forty-five years and sixty-nine in the 
succeeding forty years. This is, of course, not a fair criterion 
of the development and influence of the academy in that 



Table LXXV. Academies and Private Schools in 
Massachusetts f 





Number of academies 


Number of pupils 


Total pop- 
ulation of 
state 


Pupils per 


Year . 


Incor- 
porated 


Unincor- 
porated 


All 


Incor- 
porated 


Unincor- 
porated 


All 


10,000 
population 


1835 . . 
1840.. 
1845 .. 
1850 . . 
1855 . . 
1860 . . 


78 
66 
67 
71 
65 


lisos 

1,167 
845 
646 
640 


1^386 

1,233 

912 

717 
705 


3,i6\ 
3,939 
3,717 
4,716 
8,561 


28,635 
26,762 
19,534 
17,571 
15,933 


24,278 
32,336 
30,701 
23,251 
22,287 
19,494 


683,861 
737,699 
856,531 
994,514 
1,132,364 
1,231,066 


350 
438 
358 
234 
197 
158 



t Compiled from data given in the Abstracts of Massachusetts School Returns for the 
years 1834-60. For complete data see Inglis, A. J., The Rise of the High School in Massa- 
chusetts, p. 57. 



174 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

state, but it is indicative of the general trend of the academy 
movement. Table LXXV shows the influence of the acad- 
emy in Massachusetts during the middle of the nineteenth 
century. 

Since younger pupils are doubtless included in large num- 
bers in these figures they cannot be interpreted with any 
exactness. Nevertheless they show clearly the great influ- 
ence of the academy and private schools at the middle of 
the nineteenth century and its dechne as the high-school 
movement developed after 1840. The academy movement 
in Massachusetts developed somewhat earlier than in most 
parts of the country (New York State perhaps excepted). 
It also declined before the advance of the high-school move- 
ment at an earlier date. 

56. The academy movement in other States. Apparently 
the sort of education introduced by the academy met a very 
definite need in the field of secondary education. Gaining 
an early and firm hold, especially in Massachusetts, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Caro- 
lina, toward the middle of the nineteenth century the acad- 
emy had spread rapidly throughout the country. This is to 
be seen from the figures presented in Table LXXVI. 

In considering such figures it must, of course, be remem- 
bered that the number of academies existing in 1850 includes 
many which were institutions enroUing elementary- and 
secondary-school pupils or even elementary school students 
alone so that any direct comparison of conditions in 1850 
and in 1910 would be quite unfau*. Nevertheless the figures 
presented indicate the important position which academies 
had assumed in this country by the middle of the nineteenth 
century. 

The academy movement during the last half of the nine- 
teenth century was intimately related to the development 
of the public high-school movement and is best considered 
in that connection in later sections. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 



175 



Table LXXVI. Showing the Nuimber of Academies and 
Pupils attending them in 1850. Also their Distribution 
WITH Reference to Population. Figures are presented 
ALSO FOR Public and Private Secondary Schools in 1910-1911 

FOR purposes OF COMPARISON* 





Academiea in 1850 


All Secondary Schools 1910 


Section of the 
Country 


Number qf 


Population 
to each 


Number of 


Population 
to each 




Schools 


Pupils 


School 


Pupil 

67 

71 

162 

88 
96 
89 
84 
170 

88 
88 


Schools 


Pupils 


School 


Pupil 


New England 

Middle Atlantic .... 
East North Central . 
West North Central . 

South Atlantic 

East South Central.. 
West South Central . 
Other States 

States of 1850 

All present States . . . 


1,007 

1,636 

515 

238 

1,379 

931 

330 

49 

6,085 
6,095 


40,866 
82,923 
29,823 

9,952 
49,818 
37,559 
11,224 

1,052 

263,096 
263,096 


2,709 
3,606 
8,783 
3,861 
3,392 
3,613 
2,849 
3,649 

3,811 
3,811 


850 

1,996 

2,909 

1,339 

1,408 

787 

829 

443 

10,681 
12,213 


118,741 

239,599 

266,415 

112,351 

85,918 

51,309 

57,702 

64,014 

996,049 
1,115,326 


7,716 
9,677 
6,274 
5,671 
8,681 
10,686 
8,598 
9,532 

7,922 
7,631 


65 

81 

69 

68 

142 

164 

124 

63 

84 
82 



• Figures for the academies taken from the American Journal of Education, vol. i, p. 868 
(reproduced by Dexter, E. G., A History of Education in the United States, p. 96). Figures 
for the schools of 1910-11 taken from Public and Private Schools, Bulletin of the Bureau of 
Education (1912), no. 22, p. 42. Figures for population taken from Report of the Thirteenth 
Census (1910), vol. i, pp. 30-31. Computation and compilation by the writer. 

57. The control and support of the academy. By the end 
of the eighteenth century the Latin grammar school of the 
colonies had become an institution of the past except in a 
few important centers. The high-school movement did not 
gain any great impetus until after the middle of the nine- 
teenth century. Hence it is obvious that the academy was 
the dominant institution of secondary education in this coun- 
try from its inception in the last part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury until well into the second half of the nineteenth 
centmy. The Latin grammar school had been essentially 
a free pubUc institution, controlled and supported by the 
town or state. The high school likewise was a free public 
institution in the fullest sense of the term. In contrast with 



at- 

176 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

those institutions the academy was essentially a private 
institution in the majority of cases, the control being in- 
vested commonly in a board of trustees or other similar body. 
Nevertheless it is true that all degrees of private and pubhc 
control and support were exemplified, ranging from com- 
pletely private and personal control to practically pubhc 
control and supervision. 

In Massachusetts previous to 1797 seven academies had 
received state aid in addition to the rights of legal existence. 
In that year other academies petitioned the legislature for 
endowments and a committee was appointed to consider 
those petitions and outline a plan of the pubhc pohcy with 
regard to incorporated academies. This committee reported 
February 27, 1797: 

On a general view of this subject, the committee are of the opin- 
ion that the system hitherto pursued, of endowiag academies with 
State lands ought to be continued, but with several material al- 
terations; first, that no academy (at least not already erected) 
ought to be encouraged by government unless it have a neighbor- 
hood to support it of at least thirty or forty thousand inhabitants, 
not accommodated ia any manner by any other academies, by any 
other coUege or school answering the purpose of an academy; 
secondly, that every such portion of the Commonwealth ought to be 
considered as equally entitled to grants of State lands, in aid of 
private donations; and thirdly, that no State lands ought to be 
granted to any academy but in aid of permanent funds. ^ 

In the same report it was recommended that half a town- 
ship of six miles square of land in Maine (which was until 
1820 a part of Massachusetts) be granted to each academy 
which met certain conditions regarding funds. Those recom- 
mendations were adopted and from this action of the legis- 
lature it would appear that the academy in Massachusetts 

* Report of the Committee, quoted in the Fortieth Annual Report of the 
Massachusetts Board of Education, Appendix E, pp. 207-09. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AlVIERICA 177 

was recognized as early as 1797 as fulfilling in some degree 
the function of a quasi-public institution and as one deserv- 
ing public support. That this view was accepted is clear 
from the following: 

The following principles appear to have been established, as de- 
termining the relations of the academies to the Commonwealth. 
They were to be regarded as in many respects, and to a considerable 
extent, as public schools ; as a part of an organized system, of pub- 
lic and universal education; as opening the way, for all the people, 
to a higher order of instruction than the common schools can sup- 
ply, and as a complement to them. Towns, as well as the Common- 
wealth, were to share, with individuals, the character of founders, 
or legal visitors of them.^ 

The organization of the academies as component parts of 
a comprehensive State system reached its highest level in 
New York State. In 1787 the academies in that State were 
made a part of the University of the State of New York 
which had been organized three years before. Here also the 
policy of endowing academies with State funds was adopted. 
In the earlier period special grants were made to academies, 
and a permanent fund, known as the Literatm*e Fund, was 
established in 1813. The organized system of academy sup- 
port and control which thus grew up in New York State 
was an important element prolonging the life of the academy 
and in some ways delaying the high-school movement in 
that State. 

The policy of aiding academies by State appropriations 
of public money or land was somewhat general throughout 
the coimtry and such academies were regularly looked upon 
as quasi-public schools. It is to be noted, however, that in 
New York State only did the State exercise any sort of ade- 
quate supervision and control, so that in general we find 

^ Report of the Committee, quoted in the Fortieth Annual Report of the 
Massachusetts Board of Education, Appendix E, pp. 207-09. 



178 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the phenomenon of schools essentially controlled by private 
individuals, religious denominations, or seK-perpetuating 
boards of trustees, in extensive amount supported by public 
money. 

58. The curriculum of the academy. It was the design 
of the early founders of academies to establish schools, 
which, as contrasted with the Latin grammar schools, should 
provide a rather extensive training covering a number of 
subjects of study having value aside from preparation for 
college, courses of study which should be better fitted to 
the changed conditions of life and society, and be of prac- 
tical benefit to pupils in whatever kind of life they were des- 
tined to follow. This aim is manifest in the proposals pro- 
mulgated by Franklin and in all his activities connected with 
the academy at Philadelphia. It is also manifest in the 
constitution proposed by the founders of the Phillips Acad- 
emy at Andover wherein the aim was stated to be 

to lay the foundation of a public free school or ACADEMY for the 
purposes of instructing Youth, not only in English and Latin Gram- 
mar, Writing, Arithmetic, and those Sciences wherein they are com- 
monly taught; but more especially to learn them the GREAT END 
AND REAL BUSINESS OF LIVING ... it is again declared 
that the first and principal object of this Institution is the promo- 
tion of TRUE PIETY and VIRTUE; the second, instruction in the 
English, Latin, and Greek Languages, together with Writing, 
Arithmetic, Music, and the Art of Speaking; the third, practical 
Geometry, Logic, and Geography; and the fourth, such other 
liberal Arts and Sciences or Languages, as opportunity and ability 
may hereafter admit, and as the TRUSTEES shall direct. 

As early as 1799 we know that the following subjects were 
taught at the Phillips Academy at Exeter: the English, 
French, Greek, and Latin languages, geography, arithmetic, 
practical geometry, rhetoric, logic, natural philosophy 
(physics), history, astronomy, moral philosophy, and natu- 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 179 

ral law. At the same academy in 1818 were given studies in 
a "Classical Department" and an *' English Department." 
The studies of the Classical Department were practically 
the same as those of the Boston Latin School of about the 
same time. The English Department included the following 
studies : 

For the First Year: English Grammar including exercises in Read- 
ing, in Parsing, and Analysing, in the correction of bad English; 
Punctuation and Prosody; Arithmetic; Geography, and Algebra 
through Simple Equations. 

For the Second Year: English Grammar continued; Geometry; 
Plane Trigonometry and its application to heights and distances; 
mensuration of Sup. and Sol.; Elements of Ancient History; Logic; 
Rhetoric; English Composition; Declamation and exercises of the 
forensic kind. 

For the Third Year: Surveying; Navigation; Elements of Chem- 
istry and Natural Philosophy with experiments; Elements of Mod- 
em History, particularly of the United States; Moral and Political 
Philosophy, with English Composition, Forensics, and Declama- 
tion continued. 

The development of the academy coincided with the 
development of the newly established Republic and this 
movement was marked by the extended curriculum offered 
to boys and girls who were to become citizens of that 
Republic. It also coincided with the development of the 
sciences and the part played by them in the nineteenth 
century. This also was reflected by the curriculum of the 
academy. Subjects of study were constantly added to the 
curriculum until it covered almost every phase of learning. 
This is indicated by the range of subjects reported to the 
Regents of the University of the State of New York by the 
academies in that State in 1837: ^ 

^ Quoted from Monroe, P., Prind'ples of Secondary Education, p. 58, 
with the permission of the publishers. The Macmillan Company. 



180 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Arithmetic, algebra, architecture, astronomy, botany, book- 
keeping, Biblical antiquities, biography, chemistry, composition, 
conic sections, constitution of the United States, constitution of 
New York, elements of criticism, declamation, drawing, dialing, 
English grammar, evidences of Christianity, embroidery, civil 
engineering, extemporaneous speaking, French, geography, phys- 
ical geography, geology, plane geometry, analytic geometry, Greek, 
Grecian antiquities, German, general history, history of the United 
States, History of New York, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, law (consti- 
tutional, select revised statutes, criminal, mercantile. Black- 
stone's Commentaries), logic, leveling, logarithms, vocal music, in- 
strumental music, mapping, mensuration, mineralogy, mythology, 
natural history, navigation, nautical astronomy, natural the- 
ology, orthography, natural philosophy, moral philosophy, intellec- 
tual philosophy, penmanship, political economy, painting, perspec- 
tive, physiology, English pronunciation, reading, rhetoric, Roman 
antiquities, stenography, statistics, surveying, Spanish, trigonom- 
etry, topography, technology, principles of teaching. 

With the radical changes in the curriculum came also 
tendencies to change the methods of teaching employed. 
About the curriculum of the Latin grammar school had been 
developed a body of traditional method which continued 
to be the method employed in the teaching of Latin and 
Greek and also was transferred to the newer language 
studies. The other subjects now introduced were not forti- 
fied with traditional methods and hence there was possible 
experimentation in the methods of teaching those subjects. 
Formal catechetical and recitation methods continued to be 
employed but some of the newer subjects demanded an 
emphasis on practical use that were not to be found in 
previous methods, e.g., surveying, navigation, the sciences, 
painting, declamation, stenography, bookkeeping, etc. In 
the case of political economy, evidences of Christianity, law, 
etc., the methods employed emphasized the acquisition of 
informational facts, frequently of a type wherein the text- 
book was arranged in question-answer form. Textbooks 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 181 

rapidly multiplied and introduced new methods, some of 
which were of temporary vogue while others influenced all 
later teaching. 

59. Secondary education for girls in the academy. In 
colonial times secondary or higher education for girls was 
entirely lacking. In Dorchester, Massachusetts, the ques- 
tion of the admission of girls to the grammar school was 
raised at the time of the founding of the school, but it evi- 
dently did not result in any such provision. In 1784 the 
girls of that town were permitted to attend the grammar 
school (building?) in the summer, but it is doubtful that 
anything ever resulted from that privilege. Early in the 
history of the academy movement, however, we find acade- 
mies estabhshed for girls alone and for both sexes together. 
Of academies for girls alone the school at Germantown 
founded in 1743 may have been the first although there is 
some question of the character of that school. At any rate 
a school for girls was established by Dr. Rush in Phila- 
delphia in 1780. Of coeducational academies the Leicester 
Academy in Massachusetts was probably the first. That 
school was coeducational from its establishment in 1784. 
This was followed in Massachusetts by a number of acade- 
mies either for girls alone or for both sexes and the concep- 
tion of secondary education for girls was thus firmly im- 
planted in the public mind. 

Some of the academies established for girls were of a dis- 
tinctly inferior character to those for boys and emphasized 
particularly the "polite accomplishments" of the period. 
Foreshadowing these schools was a school such as that 
whose announcement is quoted by Monroe for the Armston 
School (1772), in which such subjects as the following were 
offered: ^ 

^ Monroe, P., Cyclopedia of Education, vol. n, p. 120; courtesy of the 
publishers, The Macmillan Company. 



182 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Petit Point in Flowers, Fruit, Landscapes and Sculpture, Nun*s 
Work, Embroidery in Silk, Gold, Silver, Pearls, or embosed. Shad- 
ing of all kinds, in the Various Works in Vogue, Dresden Point 
Work, Lace Ditto, Catgut in different Modes, flourishing Muslin, 
after the newest Taste, and most elegant Pattern Waxwork in 
Figure, Fruit, or Flowers, Shell Ditto, or grotesque. Painting in 
Water Colours and Mezzotinto; also the Art of taking off Foliage, 
with several other Embellishments necessary for the Amusement 
of Persons of Fortune who have Taste. 

Such a school was the prototype of the later "finishing 
school." 

60. Effect of the academy movement. The effect of the 
academy on the development of secondary education in the 
United States was both good and bad. On the credit side of 
its account may be placed at least four important contribu- 
tions which secondary education in America received from 
the academy movement: (1) it introduced, or at least met, 
the conception that secondary education should be provided 
for the large number of boys and girls not preparing to 
enter college; (2) it enriched and extended the course of 
study; (3) it introduced and developed secondary education 
for girls; (4) it popularized if not democratized secondary 
education in America and prepared the public mind for 
universal secondary education which was to be attempted 
later through the public high school. To these four contri- 
butions of the academy we may add another item in the fact 
that private initiative founded and fostered secondary edu- 
cation at a period when legislatures and local authorities 
failed to provide an institution adequate to meet the needs 
of society. For a period of more than three quarters of 
a century the academy was the dominant form of second-, 
ary education in the country, during a large part of that 
time it was the only form of secondary education in many 
regions, and it exerted an influence on secondary educa- 
tion in the United States which lasted throughout the nine- 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 183 

teenth century in spite of the rapid growth of the pubUc 
high school during the last half or the last quarter of that 
century. 

On the debit side of the ledger we must enter accounts 
against the academy of the following items: (1) The acad- 
emy was essentially a private, sometimes a denominational 
or at least a religious institution. The very fact that, while 
dependent on private or denominational initiative and in- 
terest for establishment and control, academies were "to 
be regarded as in many respects and to a considerable extent, 
public schools; as a part of an organized system of pubHc 
and universal education" constituted its worst defect. 
(2) With the possible exception of academies in New York 
State, the academies were not organized into a State system 
and standards were not established. (3) While the academies 
did popularize secondary education in the United States 
they did not democratize it in the sense that they equal- 
ized educational opportunity for all. Here two characteris- 
tics of the academy interfered: first, in spite of numerous 
free or nearly free scholarships, etc., the burden of expense 
fell on the pupil or his parents rather than on the public; 
secondly, since academies were located more according to 
the choice or whim of the founders and were in part " board- 
ing " schools, attendance at them was determined as much 
by their accessibility as by need and desire. This again 
affected the matter of expense. (4) While the academy did 
much to pave the way for the later public high school, both 
by establishing a form of organization, curriculum, etc., 
and by preparing the mind of the public for extensive 
secondary education, it also constituted the greatest impedi- 
ment to the early development of a really public secondary 
school. Though the high-school movement started at the 
beginning of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, 
its victory over the private school and academy was not 



184 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

complete until the end of tlie century, if indeed it has yet 
fulfilled its destiny in that respect. 

In this connection it is worthy of note that practically 
every new movement in secondary education has begun in 
some private or semi-private institution and only gradually 
has been adopted by the public high school. Instances 
of this may be found in the manual training movement 
commercial education, vocational education and vocational 
guidance, the six-year high-school plan, and other move- 
ments. 

With the development of the public secondary school, 
many academies were absorbed into the public system, a 
few grew into colleges or other higher institutions, and 
many died through lack of support, high-school competi- 
tion, or for other reasons. The lessening importance of the 
academy and the private school and the increasing impor- 
tance of the public high school during the past quarter- 
century are best considered in connection with the history 
of the public high-school movement. In passing, however, 
it may be noted that non-sectarian private secondary 
schools (including academies) have decreased from 1182 
schools with 57,385 pupils in 1895-96 to 662 schools with 
51,215 pupils in 1914-15, while sectarian secondary schools 
maintained by the Roman Catholic Church have increased 
from 271 schools with 11,728 pupils in 1895-96 to 975 
schools with 56,182 pupils in 1914-15. Other sectarian 
secondary schools have increased but slightly. 

III. The Public High School 

6i. Secondary education in the early nineteenth century. 
Of the colonial Latin grammar schools a few only had sur- 
vived the educational decline in public education of the 
eighteenth century, the extension of the district system. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 185 

and the rapid development of the academy in the late 
eighteenth century. Here and there, particularly in New 
England, a few of the grammar schools survived. The 
Boston Public Latin School renewed its power with impor- 
tant modifications under the able administration of Gould 
(1814-28) and several other Latin grammar schools con- 
tinued to flourish. However, the demands of society after 
the birth of the new nation had forever relegated the Latin 
grammar school as a general public secondary school to the 
history of the past. The institution which had replaced it 
met some of the newer conceptions of education, but the 
academy was essentially a non-public or at best but a quasi- 
public institution which could not satisfy the ideals of a 
thoroughly public secondary school. Hence there was need 
for a new type of secondary school which should involve 
the newer conceptions of the aims and methods of secondary 
education as exemphfied in the academy and at the same 
time fulfill the requirements of a pubUc institution. This 
idea was especially strong in Massachusetts and its accom- 
phshment there marked the beginning of the high school 
in America. 

62. The English Classical (High) School of Boston. Sen- 
timent for this type of secondary school first bore fruit in 
Boston where the English Classical School was founded in 
1821. The aim of those who advocated this school is indi- 
cated in the report of a sub-committee which had been 
appointed to consider the question of its estabHshment: 

The mode of education now adopted, and the branches of knowl- 
edge that are taught at our English grammar schools are not suffi- 
ciently extensive nor otherwise calculated to bring the powers of the 
mind into operation nor to qualify a youth to fill usefully and re- 
spectably many of the stations, both public and private, in which 
he may be placed. A parent who wishes to give a child an educa- 
tion that shall fit him for active life, and shall serve as a foundation 
for eminence in his profession, whether mercantile or mechanical. 



186 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

is under the necessity of giving him a different education from any 
which our pubhc schools can now furnish. Hence, many children 
are separated from their parents and sent to private academies in 
this vicinity, to acquire that instruction which cannot be obtained 
at the public seminaries.^ 

Its aim was further stated in the Regulations of the School 
Committee for 1833 : 

It was instituted in 1821, with the design of furnishing the young 
men of the city who are not intended for a collegiate course of study, 
and who have enjoyed the usual advantages of the other public 
schools, with the means of completing a good English education to 
fit them for active life or qualify them for eminence in private or 
public station. 2 

Here it is to be noted that while the conception of college 
preparation as a function of secondary education was still 
held (and exemplified in Boston in the Public Latin School 
which still continued) there was introduced in public sec- 
ondary education the conception that another function was 
also involved in secondary education — that of providing 
training for boys destined for other walks of life, "whether 
mercantile or mechanical." This conception was in some 
degree reflected in the first course of study in that school: 

First Class: Composition; reading from the most approved au- 
thors; exercises in criticism, comprising critical analyses of the 
language, grammar, and style of the best English authors, their 
errors and beauties; Declamation; Geography; Arithmetic con- 
tinued. 

Second Class: Composition, Reading, Exercises in Criticism, Dec- 
lamation; Algebra; Ancient and Modern History and Chronology; 
Logic; Geometry; Plane Trigonometry, and its applications to 
mensuration of heights and distances; Navigation; Surveying; 
Mensuration of Surfaces and Solids; Forensic Discussions. 

1 Report of the Sub-Committee quoted in Catalogue of the English High 
School, Boston, 1890. Also quoted by Brown, E. E., The Making of Our 
Middle Schools, p. 299. 

2 Regulations of the School Committee (1833), pp. 14-16. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 187 

Third Class: Composition; Exercises in Criticism; Declamation; 
Mathematics; Logic; History, particularly that of the United 
States; Natural Philosophy, including Astronomy; Moral and Po- 
litical Philosophy.^ 

In this course of study it is to be noted that the Boston 
school took over the newer subjects of study from the acad- 
emy, that great emphasis was placed on the study of Eng- 
lish, and that an attempt was made to provide a certain 
amount of "vocational education." The practical side of 
secondary education found manifestation in the study of 
English, in the mathematics to a certain degree, in naviga- 
tion, surveying (important in those days in New England), 
and in the sciences. This tendency was furthered in the 
course of study for 1823-24 when bookkeeping, "by single 
and double entry," "elements of Arts and Sciences," and 
"Practical Mathematics" were added to the program of 
studies, together with Natural Theology, Sacred Geography, 
and Evidences of Christianity — "vocational" and "moral" 
training at the beginning of the high-school movement. 

The school was first called "The English Classical School." 
The name "English High School" occurs first in the records 
of the Boston School Committee of June 23, 1824, and the 
term was in common use until 1832. In that year the 
original name was restored only to be changed once more 
in 1833 when the name "English High School" was for- 
mally adopted. 

63. The Girls' High School of Boston. The secondary 
education of girls had been begun in the academy during 
the last part of the eighteenth century. The first public 
institution for the secondary education of girls was that 
established in Boston in 1826. Its character may be seen 
from the course of study adopted:^ 

^ Report of the Sub-Committee, mentioned in note 1 . 
* The High School for Girls, Boston: An Account (February, 1826), 
pp. 12-13. 



188 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

First Year 

Required: No. 1. Reading. . .2. Spelling. . .3. Writing words aiid 
sentences from dictation. . .4. English Grammar with exercises 
in the same. . .5. Composition. . .6. Modern and Ancient Geog- 
raphy...?. Intellectual and written arithmetic. . .8. Rheto- 
ric. . .9. History pf the United States. 

Allowed: Logic, or Botany. 

Second Year 

Required: Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, continued. . .10. Bookkeeping by 
single entry. . .11. Elements of Geometry. . .12. Natural Phil- 
osophy. . . 13. General History. . . 14. History of England. . . 15. 
Paley's Natural Theology. 

Allowed: Logic, Botany, Demonstrative Geometry, Algebra, 
Latin, or French. 

Third Year 

Required: Nos. 1, 5, 12, 15, continued. . .16. Astronomy... 
17. Treatise on the use of globes. . . 18. Chemistry. . . 19. His- 
tory of Greece. . .20. History of Rome. . . 21. Paley's Evidences 
of Christianity. 

Allowed: Logic, Algebra, Principles of perspective, projection of 
maps, Botany, Latin or French. 

The success of this school was so great that more girls 
wished to enter than could be accommodated. This gave 
rise to the necessity of increasing the facilities for instruction 
in this school or of extending the scope of the elementary 
schools for girls — the writing and grammar schools. The 
latter course was adopted and the High School for Girls 
passed out of existence in 1828, not to be revived until the 
middle of the century, when it was reestablished as a training 
school for teachers. This had been one of its chief purposes 
in the original establishment. 

64. The Massachusetts law of 1827. Six years after the 
establishment of the English Classical (High) School and 
the year following the establishment of the High School for 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AlVIERICA 189 

Girls in Boston the State of Massachusetts enacted a law 
requiring the establishment of high schools throughout the 
State. That law (operative March 10, 1827) was the real 
beginning of the high-school movement and deserves some- 
what extended notice here. The part affecting secondary 
education directly reads as follows: 

And every city, town, or district, containing five hundred families 
or householders, shall be provided with such teacher or teachers 
for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twenty-four months, 
for one school in each year, and shall also be provided with a 
master of good morals, competent to instruct, in addition to the 
branches of learning aforesaid, the history of the United States, 
bookkeeping by single entry, geometry, surveying, and algebra; 
and shall employ such master to instruct a school, in such city, 
town, or district, for the benefit of all the inhabitants thereof, at 
least ten months in each year, exclusive of vacations, in such 
convenient place, or alternately at such places in such city, town, 
or district, as the said inhabitants, at their meeting in March, or 
April, annually shall determine; and in every city, or town, con- 
taining four thousand inhabitants, such master shall be competent 
in addition to all the foregoing branches, to instruct the Latin and 
Greek languages, history, rhetoric, and logic." ^ 

In spite of the various retroactive measures of 1829 (re- 
pealed 1835), of 1840 (repealed 1848), and 1850 (repealed 
1857), this law remained the basis of all subsequent legisla- 
tion affecting secondary education in Massachusetts and a 
model for the country. Significant, however, were the pro- 
visions of the act of 1857 which changed the course of study 
so as to include algebra and the history of the United States 
in the curriculum of the elementary school, natural philos-. 
ophy, chemistry, botany, Latin, and the civil polity of Mass- 
achusetts and of the United States in the curriculum of high 
schools of lower grade (in towns of five hundred families), 

* Laws of the State of Massachusetts, January Session, 1827, chap. 
cxLHi, sees., 1, 19, 21, especially. 



190 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and French, astronomy, geology, intellectual and moral sci- 
ence, and political economy in the curriculum of high schools 
of more than four thousand inhabitants.^ After those 
changes no important modifications were made in the high- 
school law until the revision of 1898. 

The term "high school " does not appear in the laws which 
created that type of school in Massachusetts until 1840. 
In common use, however, the term was applied almost from 
the beginning in 1827 to designate the type of school referred 
to in the act of that year. The term was apphed indiscrim- 
inately to schools in towns of five hundred families or those in 
towns of four thousand inhabitants and, although the law 
distinguished high schools of two different types, once a high 
school was established it tended to include in its curriculum 
all the studies prescribed for high schools of higher grade. 
Misuse of the term and evasion of the law were, of course, 
frequent. 

It is to be noted that, while no specific mention is made of 
boys and girls in the law, except as they were^included in the 
phrase "for the benefit of all the inhabitants fhereof," both 
girls and boys were regularly admitted to the high school 
from the very beginning. The absence of contemporary com- 
ment on this fact indicates how thoroughly the idea of coedu- 
cation had been inculcated through the academy movement. 

65. The public high school in Massachusetts. The figm-es 
presented in the following table will fairly indicate the devel- 
opment of the high school in Massachusetts from the passage 
of the original law in 1827 up to 1865. By the latter date the 
high school had assumed a stable position in the State, the 
legal requirements regarding the establishment of schools 
had met with a fair degree of compliance, the list of subjects 

1 Acts and Resolves, 1857, chap. 206, sees. 1, 2, 3. On the whole ques- 
tion of high-school legislation in Massachusetts see Inglis, A. J., The Rise of 
the High School in Massachusetts, chaps, ii-iii. 




•t '/V 



DUCATION IN AMERICA 191 

to be taught had assumed a form destined to endure for the 
rest of the century, the graded-school system was well under 
way, the academy had begim to give way to the public high 
school as the preeminent institution of secondary education, 
and a favorable attitude on the part of the public toward the 
high school had been created. 

Table LXXVII. The Establishment of High Schools in 

Massachusetts * 




Census 


Number re- 
quired by law 


Established 

according to 

law 


Percentage 

meeting the 

law 


Established 
but not 
required 


Total 

number 

established 


1830 


35 


3 


8.6 





3 


1840 


44 


16 


36.4 


2 


18 


1850 


76 


42 


55.3 


5 


47 


1855 


120 


77 


64.2 


10 


87 


1860 


128 


86 


67.2 


16 


102 


1865 


130 


88 


68.0 


20 


108 




* Inglis, A. J., The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts, pp. 38, 42-45. 

The unstable status of some of the high schools established 
and the fact that in some cases the so-called *'high schools" 
were so in little more than name render this table somewhat 
unrehable, but the general growth is obvious. It will be 
noted that for nearly a quarter of a century after the passage 
of the mandatory law for high schools the development w^as 
comparatively slow. There is abundant evidence that many 
factors combined to interfere mth that development — the 
dominance of the academy, the prevalence of the " district 
system" for common schools involving a conflict of interest, 
control, and policy between the " town " high schools and the 
district common schools, the difficulty of meeting the man- 
date of the law in smaller towns and sparsely populated dis- 
tricts, the ever-present financial problem, the various reac- 






<«ni 



4 



•km 

\ 



192 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tionary laws passed as relief measures in 1829, 1840, and 
1850, the lack of any centralized authority until the estab- 
lishment of the Board of Education in 1837. 

The mere number of high schools is not a good measure of 
their real effectiveness. A better measure of the degree of 
their influence would be the extent to which they served the 
population. The following table will give an indication of 
the situation in Massachusetts in 1865. 

Table LXXVin. Distribution of High Schools in Massa- 
chusetts ACCORDING TO POPULATION IN 1865* 



Total population of State, census of 1865 

In towns required by law to maintain high 

school 

In towns required to maintain high schools and 

meeting the law 

In towns required to maintain high schools and 

not meeting the law 

In towns not required to maintain high schools but 

doing so 

Total in towns maintaining high schools . 



Population 



1,267,031 

961,297 

828,643 

132,654 

37,238 
865,881 



Percentage of 
population 



75.9 

65.2 

10.5 

2.9 
68.3 



* Inglis, A. J., op. cit., p. 48. 

It has been intimated that many of the so-called " high 
schools " were not deserving of that title. This is undoubt- 
edly true, and it is a difficult task to judge the standing of 
some schools. Basing the estimate on a study of almost 
every report of every town in Massachusetts from 1827 to 
1865, I feel safe in asserting that the number was certainly 
not less than sixty-three in 1861 and in all probability was 
far greater. The number sixty-three was determined from 
definite data preserved.^ 

1 Inglis, A. J., op. cit, pp. 49-51. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 193 

In Massachusetts the pubHc high school fought its way 
successfully against the academy much earlier than was the 
case in most States. The following table presents data 
showing the status of the academy and the high school in 
Massachusetts, where the high school first developed, and 
in New York, where the academy gained its firmest foot- 
hold. 



Table LXXIX. Growth of the High School and of the 
Academy in Massachusetts and in New York State* 





Massachusetts 


New York 


Period 


High schools 
established 


Academies 
incorporated 


High schools 
established 


Academies 
incorporated 




Period 


Total 


Period 


Total 


Period 


Total 


Period 


Total 


Before 1820.. 
1820-1840. . . 
1840-1860. . . 


is 

94 


is 

102 


78 
30 


36 
112 
142 


10 
31 


10 
41 


176 

183 


52 

228 
411 



* Cf. Ingli3, A. J., op. cU., pp. 11, 46, 155. 



66. The high-school movement in the United States. 
With a few exceptions the high schools of this country owe 
their basis in aim, theory, and practice to the high school 
first created and earliest developed in Massachusetts. For 
the first fifteen or twenty years after the beginning of the 
movement progress was slow. Previous to 1840 not more 
than eighteen high schools had been established in Massa- 
chusetts and probably a less number outside that State. 
Within the next two decades (1840-1860) the movement 
spread rather rapidly, especially in Massachusetts, Ohio, and 
New York. Next to Massachusetts, Ohio seems to have led 



194 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

in the establishment of high schools, and the growth of the 
high school in that State is of particular interest. The move- 
ment there began with the establishment of the Central 
High Schools in Cleveland and Columbus in 1846. For the 
period up to 1860 the State Commissioner reported as 
follows: ^ 

There were few, if any, High Schools in the State fifteen years 
ago: and not more than twenty when our general school law was 
enacted in 1853. Since 1855 they have increased from 91 to 161, 
being an average increase of 12 per annum. During that time the 
teachers in these schools have increased from 196 to 319 and the 
pupils from 7522 to 13,183. 

Numerous estimates have been made of the number of 
pubUc high schools established and maintained in various 
parts of the country for the period from the founding of the 
English Classical (High) School in Boston up to the year 
1889-90 when the Reports of the United States Commissioner 
of Education began to give some data. None of those esti- 
mates appears to be very reliable. Commissioner Harris esti- 
mated the number of high schools in operation in the United 
States in 1870 at about 160 and those in operation in 1880 
as about 800. ^ Those figures are undoubtedly a gross under- 
estimate, but how much so it would be diflBcult to say in the 
present state of our knowledge. Dexter has analysed the 
data given in the Report of the Commissioner of Education 
for 1902 to determine the number and distribution^ of the 
3,179 public high schools reporting to the Department of 
Education the dates of their establishment. His table is 
reproduced on the following page. 

^ Seventh Annual Report of the Ohio State Commissioner of Common Schools 
(1860), p. 45. Cf. also Inglis, A. J., op. cit., pp. 156-57. 

2 Harris, W. T., "The Growth of the Public High Schools in the United 
States," Proceedings of the National Education Association (1901), p. 174. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AlVIERICA 195 

Table LXXX. Establishment of Public High Schools by 
Decades in the Various Divisions of the Country* 



Decades 


North 
Atlantic 


South 
Atlantic 


South 
Central 


North 
Central 


Western 


Total 


1820-1829 

1330-1839 

1840-1849 

1850-1859 

1860-1869 

1870-1879 

1880-1889 

1890-1809 

1900-1902 


6 

10 

27 

67 

60 

121 

142 

318 

31 


i 

4 
1 
7 
25 
47 
91 
17 


1 

1 
3 
5 

3 

27 
103 
161 

30 


"k 

9 

34 
103 
298 
508 
595 

93 


"i 

4 

8 

29 

155 

31 


7 

14 

43 

108 

177 

479 

829 

1320 

202 


Total to 1902. . 


782 


193 


334 


1642 


228 


3179 



* Dexter, E. G., A History of Education in the United States, pp. 172-73. Cf. also Inglis, 
A. J., op. cit., p. 155. 



Although these figures are without exactness, they are 
to be considered as an underestimate rather than as too 
great and indicate the rapidity of the development of the 
high school in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 
The same criticism applies to the figures given in Table 
LXXXI illustrating the development of the high school up 
to 1915. The nearer we come to the present the more rehable 
the figures become. 

With all due allowance for the inaccuracies in the data 
available and the difficulties of interpreting conditions, 
we may be justified in saying that the period from 1821 to 
about 1870 represents the period of the beginning of the 
high school movement for the country at large, the period 
of about 1870 to 1890 the period of growth and development, 
and the period from about 1890 to the present the period of 
the dominance of the public high school in the field of 
secondary education. 



196 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table LXXXI. Growth of the Public High School, 

1890-1915* 



Year 



1890-1891 
1895-1896 
1900-1901 
1905-1906 
1910-1911 
1913-1914 
1914-1915 



Schools 


Teachers 


2,771 


8,270 


4,974 


15,700 


6,318 


21,778 


8,031 


30,844 


10,234 


45,167 


11,515 


57,909 


11,674 


62,519 



Students 



211,596 
380,493 
541,730 

722,692 

984,677 

1,218,804 

1,328,984 



* Figures taken from Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), 
vol. II, p. 449. 

67. The public high school and the academy. The devel- 
opment of the academy and its dominance in the field of 
secondary education in this country until well into the last 
half, or even the last quarter, of the nineteenth century have 
been outlined earlier in this chapter. That secondary schools 
estabhshed and controlled by private individuals or cor- 
porations, more or less supported by public funds, threat- 
ened to become the controlling type of secondary school 
in the United States is obvious from the data previously 
presented. This tendency the public high school was forced 
to combat and for more than half a century the outcome of 
the public high-school movement was dubious. However, 
by the middle of the last quarter of the nineteenth century 
we find the high school well in the lead and its ultimate 
victory over the academy and private high school well 
assured. The situation since that time is illustrated by the 
figures in Table LXXXII. 

With all due allowance for the incompleteness and inac- 
curacy of the returns made to the Federal Bureau of Educa- 
tion (especially for the earlier years), the growing influence 
of the public high school and its dominance over the private 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 197 

Table LXXXII. The Relative Progress of Public and 
Private High Schools, 1889-1915* 



Tear 


Per cent of number 
of schools 


Per cent of number 
of teachers 


Per cent of number 
of pupils 




Public 


Private 


Public 


Private 


Public 


Private 


1889-1890 


60.75 
68.37 
75.22 

82.32 
85.15 
83.85 


39.25 
31.63 

24.78 
17.68 
14.85 
16.15 


55.85 
62.26 
66.82 
74.29 
78.90 
81.68 


44.15 
37.74 
33.18 
25.71 
21.10 
18.32 


68.13 
74.74 
82.41 
86.38 
88.63 
89.55 


31.87 


1894-1895 


25.26 


1899-1900 


17 59 


1904-1905 


13.62 


1909-1910 


11 37 


1914-1915 


10.45 







* Report of the United States Commissioner cf Education (1916), vol. n, p. 449. 



secondary school is evident. There must always be some 
place for the private secondary school, and it is doubtful that 
the present status will ever greatly change. An extension of 
public supervision over privately controlled schools is prob- 
ably the next step rather than any form of repression or 
complete control on the part of the State. Since the public 
school must always determine its policy^4H— terms-of the 
larger group, some small proportion of children will always 
receive better educational opportunities in the smaller 
private school than in the public system. This fact, together * 
with the facts that the complete exclusion of rehgion from the 
public school leads to the establishment of sectarian schools, 
and that educational experimentation is commonly more 
easily conducted in the private school, will doubtless encour- 
age the continuance of non-public secondary schools. 

68. State systems of secondary education. In the United 
States there exists no Federal power or administrative ma- 
chinery, such as is found in some countries, whereby the 
centralized control or supervision of secondary schools can 



198 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

be developed. Control over secondary education as over 
other forms of secondary education is left to the several 
States. Some States have exercised that power extensively: 
other States have left the control of secondary education 
almost entirely to local school authorities. As a result there 
is found little uniformity in practice, and gross inequalities 
in educational opportunity are obvious. It has already 
been shown that from the passage of the law of 1647 second- 
ary schools in Massachusetts have been more or less con- 
trolled by the State. By the passage of the law of 1827 
Massachusetts compelled the establishment of public high 
schools which were required to meet very specific demands 
as to curriculum, length of school year, etc., to that extent 
providing for a State system of secondary education. Not 
until 1902, however, did the State share directly in the sup- 
port of public secondary education. An anomalous situation 
arose in the early part of the high-school movement when 
the State lent financial support to private academies, while 
requiring communities to maintain high schools, but not 
sharing in the support of them. 

In other States comprehensive schemes for the State 
organization of all education, including the coopdination 
of secondary schools with other divisions of education, were 
elaborated before the close of the eighteenth century or in 
the early part of the nineteenth century, although the actual 
carrying-out of proposed schemes failed or was developed 
later. Thus, in 1779 Jefferson presented a bill to the Legis- 
lature of Virginia which provided for elementary schools in 
each district in the State five or six miles square, for coordi- 
nated grammar schools at twenty centers in the State, and 
for the articulation of those schools with William and Mary 
College. Some of his proposals were incorporated in the 
law of 1796, but the scheme as a whole was not put into 
operation. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 199 

In 1784 the University of the State of New York was 
established and by 1787 it had assumed the fundamental 
characteristics of its present form. The University provided 
an elaborate form of control and supervision over all second- 
ary schools and most of the higher institutions of the State. 
It did not originally provide for careful articulation between 
the elementary school and the academy, in part because of 
the then existing emphasis on secondary education, and in 
part because at that time much of the present-day elemen- 
tary education was provided in the academy. Practically 
from the beginning assistance was rendered by the State to 
secondary education, and in 1813 a permanent "Literature 
Fund " was established which has always been applied wholly 
to the support of secondary education. The University plan 
was adopted in Georgia in 1785 in the Territory of New 
Orleans, in the University of Michigan in 1817, and the 
scheme may be traced in other States. 

While the development of State systems of secondary 
schools began in the legal mandate of Massachusetts in 
1647, ifs progress has been more favorable where State 
support has been stressed instead of legal mandate and 
w^here control and supervision has been gained in large part 
through the granting or withholding of public State funds. 
In some States there has never been any legal mandate re- 
quiring the establishment of public high schools and their 
development has been secured wholly or almost wholly by 
State aid encouraging local interest and support. Appar- 
ently the first example of a law providing for the appropria- 
tion of State funds to aid high schools (though the practice 
of granting aid through gifts of State money and land had 
grown up with the academy movement) was the act of the 
Legislature of Maine in 1871, which provided that the State 
should pay annually an amount equal to that raised by 
local taxation for a high school, that amount, however, not 



200 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

to exceed in any one case $500. A somewhat similar pro- 
vision was made in Wisconsin in 1875, in Minnesota in 1878, 
and later in many other States. At the present time some 
form of State aid is provided in practically every Common- 
wealth, although the source of such funds, their amounts, 
and the forms of their distribution vary widely.^ Especially 
noteworthy has been the tendency to encourage vocational 
education by the granting of State aid. 

The fact that in most States legislation affecting the es- 
tablishment and maintenance of pubhc high schools during 
the earlier period was permissive rather than mandatory and 
the fact that in some States no provision had been made, 
gave rise early to the question of the legal right on the part 
of communities and States to raise and appropriate money 
derived from taxation for the support of high schools. The 
issue was finally settled in the afl&rmative by the Supreme 
Court of Michigan in the so-called Kalamazoo High School 
Case and that decision became the legal precedent.^ 



Note: Consideration of many special phases of the later de- 
velopment of secondary education is deferred. Such problems as 
the historical relation of the secondary school and the college, the 
historical relation between elementary and secondary education, 
the historical development of various studies, the historical de- 
velopment of the curriculum organization, and like topics are 
considered in appropriate later sections. 

^ On the whole matter of State aid for secondary education see: Cubber- 
ley, E. P., School Funds and Their Apportionment; Snyder, E. R., The 
Legal Status of Rural High Schools; Hanger, J. H., " The Legal Status of the 
High School," chap, iii of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), The Modern High School. 

2 30 Michigan 69. 



SECONDAEY EDUCATION IN AMERICA 201 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Trace the legal status of the secondary school in America. 

2. Trace the development of local or State control of secondary education 
in America. 

3. In what ways did the academy movement affect secondary education in 
America? 

4. Trace the development of secondary school controlled or maintained by 
religious denominations in America during the past two decades. (Cf. 
Reports of the United States Commissioner of Education (1895-96 to 
1916.) 

5. Trace the development of non-academic subjects in the secondary- 
school curriculum. 

6. Trace changes in the methods of teaching subjects in the secondary 
school as indicated by the textbooks employed. (Cf. Inglis, A. J., The 
Rise of the High School in Massachusetts, chap, vi.) 

7. Trace the development of the academy in any one State. 

8. Trace the development of the high school in any one State. 

9. Trace the development of rural high schools in any one State. 

10. Trace the development of State aid to secondary education in the 
United States. 

11. Consider any one problem in present-day secondary education and 
trace its history. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 
Boone, R. G., Education in the United States, especially chaps, i, in, v, XV, 

XIX, XXI. 

BrowTi, E. E., The Making of Our Middle Schools. 

Davis, C. O., Public Secondary Education. 

Dexter, E. G., A History of Education in the United States, especially chaps* 
i-xiv. 

Hinsdale, B. A., Documents Illustrative of American Educational History, 

Inglis, A. J., The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts. 

Jones, D. R., State Aid to Secondary Schools, University of California Pub- 
lications; Education, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 47-150, 

Lull, H. G., Inherited Tendencies of Secondary Instruction in the United 
States, University of California Publications; Education, vol. 3, no. 3, 
pp. 155-281. 

Monroe, P., Principles of Secondary Education, chap. n. 

Philbrick, J. D., City School Systems in the United States, Bureau of Educa- 
tion Circulars of Information (1885), no. 1, especially pp. 22-32, 35-37, 
69-89. 

Small, W. H., "The New England Grammar School," School Review, vol. 
x, pp. 513-31; vol. xiv, pp. 42-56. 



202 PKINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Snyder, E. R., The Legal Status of Rural High Schools. 

Smith, F. W., The High School; A Study of Origins and Tendencies. 

United States Commissioner of Education, Reports. 

United States Bureau of Education, Circulars of Information. Several 

numbers contain the history of education in various States. 
Monroe, P., Cyclopedia of Education, articles on Grammar School, Academy, 

High School, etc. 

Extended bibliography: Brown E. E., The Making of Our Middle Schools, 
pp. 481-518 (to 1905); Smith, F. W., The High School; A Study of Origins 
<md Tendencies, pp. 443-451 (to 1916). 



CHAPTER VI 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES 

69. The comparative study of secondary education. The 
comparative study of institutions for secondary education 
in different countries is one of the most effective means of 
evaluating theories and practices in any one country. To 
the student of secondary education in America some knowl- 
edge of the organization of secondary education in foreign 
countries is of value for a number of reasons. 

(1) The person familiar with but a single type of institu- 
tion tends constantly to think in terms of that institution 
only, fails to recognize the existence of many problems in- 
volved in that institution, and lacks a basis for intelligent 
comparison of institutions of different types designed to 
accomplish somewhat like and somewhat different purposes. 
A basis for the valuation of theories and practices in Ameri- 
can secondary education is provided through the study of 
theories and practices obtaining in other countries. -^ 

(2) Dominant social ideals and the form of social organi- 
zation differ in different countries, and the aims and organ- 
ization of secondary education should vary accordingly. 
Nevertheless certain fundamental social ideals are much the 
same in all countries and in all cases secondary education 
has some common purposes. A study of the various ways in 
which secondary education is organized to achieve those 
common ends is suggestive of fundamental theories and 
practices for the student of secondary education in America 
or any other country. 

(3) Many specific problems of theory and practice in- 
volved in secondary education in America at the present 



204 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

time have in part originated in Europe. Instances may be 
found in connection with vocational education, continuation 
schools, methods of teaching foreign languages, economy of 
time in education, the earlier beginning of secondary edu- 
cation, etc. The development of many of these movements 
cannot be understood adequately without some knowledge 
of conditions affecting secondary education in certain 
European countries. 

(4) From time to time proposals are made for the adop- 
tion in America of certain practices found in other countries. 
In some cases those proposals are worthy of serious consid- 
eration. In other cases foreign practice is itseK misunder- 
stood by those who advocate changes in America, or is so 
conditioned by factors peculiar to some one country that its 
adoption in America would be a gross mistake. The student 
of secondary education who is unacquainted with social and 
educational conditions in other important countries is at a 
disadvantage when called on to estimate the merits and 
defects of such proposals. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to provide some basis for 
the comparative study of secondary education. Space avail- 
able limits the number of secondary-school systems which 
can be considered and the amount of consideration which 
can be given to secondary education in any one country. 
Attention will be confined, therefore, to secondary educa- 
tion in Germany, France, and England — countries which 
are mosTsuggesGve to the student of secondary education 
in America. 

70. Purview of secondary education in other countries. 
In different countries the organization of education is so 
varied that it is very difficult to make general statements 
concerning the institutions for secondary education. In 
many foreign countries two or more systems of education 
rim somewhat parallel, separated by lines of social or 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



205 



Table LXXXIII. Statistics of Secondary Schools* 



Countries 



Austria-Hungary , 



Total 
Belgium 



Total 
Bulgaria ... 



Total, 
Denmark . . . 



Total, 



France. 



Total, 
Germany 



Total 



Italy. 



Total 
Netherlands . 

Total. 

Greece 

Norway 

Portugal . . . . 
Russia 



Total, 

Spain 

Sweden 

Switzerland . , 
Japan 



Total 



Year of 
report 



1910-11 



Types of secondary schools 



1912 



1911-12 



1910-11 



Gymnasia and Realgymnasia 

Realschulen 

Gymnasia for girls (Austria only) . 



Royal atheneums and colleges . 
Middle-class schools, male . . . . 
Middle-class schools, female . . 
Middle-class normal schools . . 



Gymnasia 

Lower middle schools 

Special technical and other schools. 



State schools 

Private Latin schools 
Private Bealskole 



1913 



1911 



1912-13 



1913-14 



1910-11 

1911-12 

1913 

1912 



1915 

1914 

1912 

1913-14 



Lycees for boys 

Communal colleges 

Secondary schools for girls . 



Gymnasia ...... 

Realgymnasia . . 
Oberrealschulen . 
Girls' Gymnasia. 



Ginnasi 
Licei 



Gymnasia 

Middle-class schools 



All secondary schools. 

All secondary schools 

All secondary schools , 

Gymnasia 

Real schools , 

Gymnasia for girls ... 



"Institutions" 

Public high schools 

Schools leading to higher institutions 

Middle schools 

High schools for girls 



Schools 



484 
189 

24 



697 

35 

90 

44 

4 



173 

47 
316 
155 



518 

12 

39 
126 



177 

112 

231 
193 



5J6 

524 

223 

167 

39 



953 

553 

239 



792 

33 
105 



138 

338 

89 

31 

393 

276 
779 



1448 
59 
77 
84 

316 

328 



644 



Pupils 



162,796 

62,500 

3,254 



228,550 

8,323 
19,765 
10,104 

209 



38,401 

16,487 

55,512 

9,492 



81,492 

2,878 

9,860 

17,815 



30,553 

62,879 
37,324 
38,358 



138,561 

160,237 
70,357 
75,832 
22,137 



328,563 

49,784 
15,136 



64,920 

2,817 
15,807 



18,624 

31,399 

19,716 

10,401 

137,594 

76,971 

292,353 



506,918 
33,071 
24,364 
17,266 

131,242 

82,474 



13,716 



* Report of the United States Commissioner of Edxication (1916), vol. i, pp. 674-75. 



206 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

economic cleavage. In few countries other than the United 
States, Canada, and Japan is secondary education se- 
quentially related to elementary education. Nevertheless 
Table LXXXIII may serve as an introduction to the con- 
sideration of secondary education in other countries. The 
reader is warned that in no country can the character of 
secondary education and its scope be appraised accurately 
from the data given. 

Secondary schools in the countries of Continental Europe 
are for the most part modeled on the type of the German 
Gymnasium and Realschule or on the type of the French 
lycee, so that the more extended consideration given to the 
schools of Prussia and of France in later sections will illus- 
trate the general principles of organization and education 
in many other countries of Continental Europe. Secondary 
education in England is of a noticeably different character 
than that of Continental Europe and will be given separate 
attention. 



I. Secondaby Education in Prussia 

71. The organization of school systems in Prussia. 
The German Empire comprises a number of more or less 
independent States (kingdoms, grand duchies, principali- 
ties, etc.), each of which controls its own system of education. 
In this respect the situation in Germany is somewhat the 
same as in the United States, where each State has entire 
control over its system of schools. However, since Prussia 
has about two thirds of the population of the German Em- 
pire, includes approximately two thirds of the total area, and 
has assumed a commanding lead in educational matters as 
well as in most political matters, the treatment of educa- 
tion in Germany given in the following sections will deal 
specifically with the Prussian schools as the type, with occa- 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 207 

sional references to differing conditions found in other 
States of the Empire. 

Although there is no centrahzed system of educational 
control in the Empire as a whole, the administration is rather 
highly centralized in separate States. Thus, in Prussia the 
central authority is vested in the Minister of Religious and 
Educational Affairs who is responsible to the King alone. 
In the ministry under his charge are three departments, one 
for religious affairs and two for educational affairs — com- 
mon schools and higher schools being controlled by different 
departments. In each of the twelve provinces which com- 
pose the Prussian Kingdom is a provincial school board 
having almost entire charge of all higher schools within the 
province. Through the department for higher schools in the 
State Ministry, through the provincial boards, and through 
the examining commissions, the centralized State control of 
higher schools is practically complete. The result is a system 
of standardized higher schools throughout the Kingdom of 
Prussia, manifesting a degree of uniformity in organization, 
administration, curricula, and all .other matters, which is 
without parallel in any American State. Local school boards 
play an insignificant role in the control of higher schools. 
Municipalities may assume the initiative in the establish- 
ment of their owti schools, but in such case they must con- 
form to the regulations of the provincial boards. They may 
decide what type of school shall be established, but once 
estabHshed the school must conform in every way to the 
minimum requirements set. Local authorities may select 
their own teachers, but the selection must be made from a 
list of eligibles prepared by the higher authorities. In all 
cases the action of the local boards is determined by stand- 
ards set up by higher authorities, and once the school is 
established little is left for the local authorities except to see 
that the work of the school fulfills the demands set by State 



208 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and provincial officers and see that bills are paid. Their 
control over the professional side of the work of the school 
is nil. 

72. The place of " higher schools " in Prussian education. 
In no State of the German Empire is there a division of 
elementary and secondary schools at all similar to that 
found in America. In Prussia there are really three almost 
entirely separate systems of schools: (a) schools for boys 
and girls of the common people, of which the basis is the 
"People's School" (VolJcsschide) ; (h) higher schools for boys 
of the upper classes {Hohere Knabenschule) ; (c) higher 
schools for girls of the upper classes ( Hohere Mddchenschule), 
Boys and girls of the lower classes enter the Volksschule at 
the age of six and continue there until they are about four- 
teen, after which, if they continue their school education, 
they enter continuation or vocational schools, middle 
schools, etc. Boys of the upper classes enter the higher 
school proper at the age of nine or ten and continue there 
for a six-grade course or a nine-grade course. To most of 
the higher schools for boys are attached three-grade prepar- 
atory divisions (Vorschule) in which boys are trained from 
the age of six to the age of nine and then pass directly into 
the higher school proper. Theoretically there is articulation 
between the third grade of the Volksschule and the first 
grade of the higher school for boys. Practically there is 
almost no articulation between the systems. Girls of the 
upper classes enter the Hohere Mddchenschule at the age of 
six and Remain there for twelve or more years according 
to the course chosen in the latter part of the school. 

A more detailed description of the various higher schools 
will be given later. From this preliminary description, how- 
ever, it should be clear that for different groups of pupils 
in Prussia elementary and secondary education (in the Amer- 
ican sense of the terms) are combined in each of the three 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



209 



systems mentioned. No greater mistake could be made 
(and it is a common mistake) than to confuse the Volksschule 
(also called the Elementarschule) with the elementary school 
in the American sense of the term, and to confuse the 
Hohere Schule with the secondary school in the American 
sense. 

73. Higher schools for boys in Prussia. Higher schools 
for boys in Prussia are of three types: (1) the Gymnasium 
and Progymnasium, which are essentially classical schools 
of the older type; (2) the Realgymnasium and Realprogym- 



Table LXXXIV. 



Program of Studies in the Prussian 
Gymnasium* 





VI 


V 

2 


IV 

2 


UIII 

2 


0/7/ 

2 


E7// 

2 


0// 

2 


UI 

2 


01 

2 


Total 


Religion 


3 


19 


Germana 


4 


3 


3 


2 


2 


3 


3 


3 


3 


26 


Latin 


8 


8 


8 


8 
6 


8 
6 


7 
6 


?1 


^1 


U 


68 


Greek 


36 


French 






4 


2 


2 


3 


3 


3 


3 


20 


History? 

Geography. . . . 
Mathematics. . 


'2 
4 


"i 

4 


2 
2 

4 


2 
1 
3 


2 
1 
3 


2 

h 


i3 


1^ 
^1 


1^ 


17 

9 

34 


Natural science 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


18 


Writing 

Drawing^ 


2 


2 
2 

25 


"2 
29 


""2 
30 


*"2 
30 


30 


30 


30 


30 


4 
8 




25 




Total 


259 


Gymnastics . . . 
Singingc 


3 

2 


3 

2 


3 

(2) 


3 

(2) 


3 
(2) 


3 

(2) 


3 

(2) 


3 

(2) 


3 

(2) 


27 
(18) 



Notes: a. In the study of German for VI and V one hour per week is devoted to his- 
torical stories. 

b. Drawing is optional two hours per week each in U II to O I. 

c. After V singing is required of those possessing ability only. 

Brackets denote that a redistribution of time is permissible. 

Hebrew and Enghsh are optional for two hours per week in each of years 

O U to O I. 

* Lehrplane und Lehraufgaben fiir die hoheren Schulen in Preussen (Berlin, 1901), pp. 5-7. 
The six-grade schools have exactly the same programs as those of the nine-grade schools 
from VI to U n. 



210 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAEY EDUCATION 

nasiurrif which are in part classical and in part modern; (3) 
the Oherrealschule and Realschule, which emphasize modern 
studies. The Gymnasium, Realgymnasium, and Oherreal- 
schule are nine-grade schools. The Progymnasium, Real- 
progymnasium, and Realschule are six-grade schools whose 
curricula correspond exactly to those of the respective nine- 
grade schools.^ Boys completing the six-grade course, if 
they continue their education, enter the seventh grade of 
the corresponding nine-grade school. 

Boys enter the preparatory department (Vorschule) of 
the higher school at the age of six and, after three years of 
study there, enter the higher school proper at the age of 
nine or ten. The complete higher school course has nine 
grades beginning with Sexta (the lowest, VI), and proceeding 

Table LXXXV. Program of Studies in the Prussian 
Realgymnasium * 





VI 
3 


V 


IV 


UIII 

2 


OIII 

2 


UII 


Oil 


17/ 


02 


Total 


Religion 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


19 


German^ 


4 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


28 


Latin 


8 


8 


7 
5 


5 

4 


5 

4 


4 

4 


4 

4 ) 
3 j 


4 

^1 


4 

41 


49 


French 


29 


English 






■ • • 


3 


3 


3 


3j 


18 


Historya 


. . . 




2 


2 


2 


2 


1^ 


1^ 


1^ 


17 


Geography. . . . 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


1 


11 


Mathematics . . 


4 


4 


4 


5 


5 


5 


5 


5 


5 


42 


Natural science 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


4 


5 


5 


5 


29 


Writing 


2 


2 


• . . 




• • • 










4 


Drawing 




2 
25 


2 
29 


2 
30 


2 
30 


2 


2 


2 
31 


2 


16 




25 




Total 


30 


31 


31 


262 



Notes: a. Music and gymnastics as in Gymnasium. Other notes as in Gymnasium, ex- 
cept that drawing (geometrical) is optional two hours per week from O III on. 

* Leh.T'plane und Lehraufgaben fUr die hoheren Sckulen in Preussen (Berlin, 1901), pp. 6-7, 
1 Minor differences may be allowed in the ReaLschvle. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



211 



through Quinta (V), Quarta (IV), Unter-tertia (U III), 
Oher-tertia (0 III), Unter-sekunda (U II), Ober-sekunda 
(O II), Unter-prima (U I), and Ober-prima (O I). Thus the 
close of the six-grade school or course comes at the end of 
Unter-sekunda. 

The character of the different types of higher schools for 
boys may be seen best from the programs presented in 
Tables LXXXIV, LXXXV, and LXXXVI. The headings 
refer to the classes or grades mentioned and the figures 
refer to the number of periods per week devoted to the 
various studies. 



Table LXXXVI. Program of Studies est the Prussian 

Oberrealschule * 



Religion 

German^ 

French 

English 

Historya 

Geography . . . 
Mathematics . 
Natural science 

Writing 

Freehand draw- 
ing 



Total. 



VI 



25 



25 



ly 



29 



UIII 



30 



OIII 



30 



UII 



30 



Oil 



31 



U I 



31 



01 



31 



Total 



19 
34 
47 
25 
18 
14 
47 
36 
6 

16 



262 



Notes: Same as for the Realgymnasium. 
* Lehrpldne und LehravfgabenfUr die hoheren Schulen in Preuasen (Berlin, 1901), pp. 5-7. 



A tabulation of the total number of periods per week 
devoted to the various studies shows the difference between 
the three types of schools. 



212 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table LXXXVII 





Gymnasium 


Realgymnasium 


Oberrealschule 


Religion 


19 


19 


19 


German 


26 


28 


34 


Latin 


63 


49 




Greek 


36 






French 


20 


29 


47 


English 


. . . (+ 6) 


18 


25 


History 


17 


17 


18 


Geography 


9 


11 


14 


Mathematics 


34 


42 


47 


Natural science 


18 


29 


36 


Writing 


4 


4 


6 


Drawing 


8 (+9) 


16 (+10) 


16 (+10) 


Totals 


259 


262 


262 



The Gymnasium of to-day is the lineal descendant of the 
old classical Gymnasium established before the Reformation. 
To it attaches all the prestige and support which comes from 
reverence for an old-established institution, and, since it 
receives the support of the military and aristocratic classes, 
it is preeminently the socially "select" higher school for 
boys in Germany. It has been mentioned in the preceding 
chapter that the movement away from the narrow classicism 
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was marked 
in Germany in the middle of the eighteenth century by 
the beginning of "real" schools (Realschulen) . Their early 
promise was soon checked, however, and in spite of attempts 
at reform during the early part of the nineteenth century 
it was not until the ministerial order of 1859 that the mod- 
ern movement for the newer types of schools was officially 
recognized by the institution of the Realschule Erste Ord- 
nung and the Realschule Zweite Ordnung. The first of these 
schools was permitted to offer a full nine-grade course and 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 213 

later developed into the Realgymnasium. The second of those 
schools was a six-grade school. The Oberrealschule was 
created by adding three grades to that six-grade Realschule 
in 1882. After the establishment of the Oberrealschule the 
Realgymnasium in the opinion of many became a rather 
useless institution and in the Conference of 1890 its dis- 
continuance was recommended by a majority vote. The 
recommendation was not carried out, however, and the 
Realgymnasium continues to exist as a higher school occupy- 
ing a position midway between the Gymnasium and the 
Oberrealschule. In 1870 for the first time those who had 
passed the "leaving examination'* (Abiturientenprufung) 
of the Realschule Erste Ordnung (later the Realgymnasium) 
were given access to the university, though to certain courses 
only. This privilege was extended to the students of the 
Oberrealschule in 1892 but it was not until the imperial edict 
of 1900 that limitations were removed and the three types 
of higher schools placed on practically an equal footing in 
Prussia. 

74. "Reform Schools" in Germany. The limited articu- 
lation between the three types of higher schools for boys in 
Prussia and the consequent necessity for early decision as 
to the school or course to be pursued by any boy has led 
within recent years to attempts to modify existing institu- 
tions. As a result there have developed Reformgymnasien 
which have introduced two new principles: (a) the prin- 
ciple of a common foundation in the lower grades; (b) the 
principle of bifurcation in the upper grades. This means 
that the decision of an educational choice may be post- 
poned for some years and that two or more courses may 
be offered in one institution. 

Two general types of Reformgymnasien are found — the 
Frankfurt system and the Altona system. Of these the 
Frankfurt system provides a common foundation in the 



gl4 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

earlier grades for gymasial and realgymnasial courses, and 
the Altona system provides a common foundation for real- 
gymnasial and realschule courses. The reforms inaugurated 
by these two systems are so important that they deserve 
some detailed consideration. The official program for the 
Frankfurt system is as follows: 

Table LXXXVIII. The Frankfurt Program* 





i_ 


rnwfii 




Middle Division 


Upper Division 


StihjecU 


Division 


Gymnasium 


Realgymnasium 




VI 

3 
5 

6 


V 

2 

4 

6 


IV 

2 
4 

6 


UIII 


0/72 

2 

3 

G2) 

R4i 

GIO^ 

R 8f 

i' 

2 

4 
2 


UII 

2 
3 

2 

8 
8 


77 

2 
3 

2 

8 
8 


cr7 

2 
3 

2 

8 
8 


07 

2 
3 

2 

8 
8 

i 
2 
3 


UII 

2 
3 

3 

6 


077 

2 
3 

3 
6 


C77 

2 
3 

3 
6 


02 


Religion 

German 

French 

Latin 


2 

3 
jG2 
]R4 
JGIO 
IR 8 

1 

2 
4 
2 

"2 


2 
3 

3 
6 


Greek 










English 








6 

1 
2 
4 


4 
1 
2 
5 


4 

1 
2 
5 


4 


Geography . . . 
History 


2 


2 


2 
3 
5 
2 

"2" 


1 


2 
3 


2 
4 


3 

4 


?. 


Mathematics. . 
Nature study.. 

Writing 

Drawing 


5 

2 
2 


5 

2 
2 
2 


5 


















2 










2 
3 


2 

2 
2 


2 
2 

2 


9, 


Physics 

Chemistry, . . . 




2 


2 


2 


2 


2 

















* Statistisches Jahrbuch der hoheren Schvlen (1913-14), p. 1012, 8. G = Gymnasium, 
R = Realgymnasium. 



It is to be noted here that all pupils take the same course 
in the first three grades and that the work in grades Unter- 
tertia and Ohertertia differs only in the distribution of time 
between Latin and French. Thus differentiation is prac- 
tically postponed until the boy is the age of about fourteen. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



215 



This type of school has become popular in Prussia, 133 
having been established in that state by 1912.^ 

Table LXXXIX. The Altona Program * 





Foundation 


Realschule 




Realgymnasium 


Subjects 














VI 
3 


V 
2 


IV 

2 


III 

2 


// 


/ 


17 777 


OIII 


t7 77 


77 


UI 


07 


Religion 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


German 


4 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


2 


2 


3 


3 


3 


3 


French 


6 


6 


5 


6 


6 


5 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


English 


• • • 




4 


5 


4 


5 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


Latin 














6 


6 


5 


5 


5 


5 


History and Geo- 
















graphy 


3 


3 


4 


4 


4 


3 


4 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


Mathematics . . . 


5 


5 


6 


6 


5 


5 


5 


4 


5 


4 


5 


5 


Nature study . . . 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 




2 


2 


2 








Writing 

Drawing 


9. 


2 
























2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


Physics 










2 


3 




2 


2 


3 


2 


2 


Chemistry 












2 








2 


2 


2 

















* Statistiachea Jahrbuch der hoheren Schulen (1913-14), p. 1012, 8. 



The Altona system has not proved very popular, there 
being but five in Prussia in 1912, some of which have 
changed to the Frankfurt plan since then. 

According to figures presented in the Kommunales Jahr- 
buck for 1913-14 there were 184 Reformschulen in Germany 
in 1912, Prussia having 133.^ In spite of the rapid develop- 
ment of such schools, however, the older types of separated 
schools are dominant. How far they may be able to with- 
stand the encroachment of the Reformschulen must remain 
for the future to determine. 

* Staiistisches Jahrbuch der hoheren Schulen (1913-14), p. 1012, 9, 
2 Kommunales Jahrbuch (1913-14), p. 362. Cf. Staiistisches Jahrbuch 
(1913-14), pp. 1012, 9-10. 



216 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

75. Higher schools for girls in Prussia. In considering 
the higher schools for girls in Prussia two important facts 
must be kept in mind. The first is that higher education for 
girls is a matter of recent development, its present organiza- 
tion beginning with the regulations of 1908. Hence higher 
education for girls in Prussia must be considered to be in a 
formative and experimental stage. The second fact is that 
higher education for girls is separate from that for boys 
and different in organization. Coeducation is practically 
unknown in Prussia. 

The central institution for the higher education of girls 
is the Lyzeum, which offers education, elementary and sec- 
ondary in the American sense of the terms, for girls from the 
age of six to the age of sixteen.) Superimposed on this course 
is the Oherlyzeum which comprises two courses, one the 
Women's School (Frauenschule) with a two-grade courscy; 
designed to provide training in household and kindergarten 
arts, the other the Teachers' Training School (Hoheres 
Lehrerinnenseminar) with a four-grade course, designed to 
train teachers for the lower schools. In addition, for girls 
who plan to enter the university, there are higher-course 
schools (Studienanstalten) which are essentially university 
preparatory schools. These correspond somewhat to the 
courses for boys in the Gymnasium, Realgymnasium, and 
Oberrealschule and are called by corresponding names. Girls 
taking the Oberrealschule course are transferred from the 
Lyzeum at the close of the eighth grade (minimum age four- 
teen years). Girls taking the Gymnasial or Realgymnasial 
course are transferred from the Lyzeum at the close of the 
seventh grade (minimum age thirteen years). Thus the 
Gymnasial and Realgymnasial courses for girls have six 
grades and the Oberrealschule course has five grades, all 
having a common basis in the Lyzeum. 

The general organization of higher schools for girls may 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 217 

be seen from the following diagram and the program for the 
Lyzeum, 

Table XC. The Organization of Higher Schools for 
Girls in Prussia * 



Age 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 



Grade X IX VIII Vll VI V IV 
Lyzeum 



m 



n I f n I 

I Frauenschule 



Ober- 



j I UDer- 

1 m II 1 Sem. I Lyzeum 

[ Lehrerinnenseminar J 



'->v rv ni n n 

OberrealBchule Course 



Studien- 



r rv III II I , o..uu.eu- 

Real gymDasial Course | austalten 
^VI V^ 

IV in n I 

Gym i^nasial Course J 

• Adapted from Statiatiachea Jahrbuch der hoheren Schulen (1913-14), p. 1012, 7. 



In the Frauenschule the com'se of study comprises peda- 
gogy (two hours per week in each of the two grades), house- 
hold arts, including practical work (five periods per week 
in each grade), kindergarten teaching, including practice 
work (four periods per week in each grade), hygiene and the 
care of children, including practical work in nurseries, etc. 
(four periods per week in each grade), civics and economics, 
including visits to institutions (two periods per week in 
each grade), household bookkeeping (one period per week in 
each grade), needlework (two periods per week in each 
grade), and rehgion, German, French, English, Latin, 
Itahan, history, geography, science, history of art, gymnas- 
tics, drawing and painting, music (each subject according 
to circumstances and needs; two periods each per week). 

In the Hoheres Lehrerinnenseminar the course of study 
includes three years of academic continuation work and one 
year of practical work. The studies of the three first years 
comprise religion, German, French, English, history, geo- 
graphy, mathematics, natural science, pedagogy, method 



gl8 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table XCI. Course of Study in the Prussian Lyzeum * 
a. Literary and Scientific Subjects 





Lower stage 


Middle stage 


tapper afa^e 


Total 




X 


IX 


vni 


VII 


VI 

3 
5 
5 


V 


IV 


III 


II 


I 


VII-I 


Religion 

German 

French 


3 
10 


3 
9 


3 

8 


3 
6 
6 


3 
5 
5 


2 
4 
4 
4 
2 
2 
3 
3 

22 


2 
4 
4 
4 
2 
2 
3 
3 

24 


2 
4 
4 
4 
2 
2 
3 
3 

24 


2 
4 
4 
4 
3 
2 
3 
3 

24 


17 

32 
32 


English 








16 


History^' 










2 
2 
3 
2 

22 


2 
2 
3 
2 

22 


13 


Geography 






2 
3 


2 
3 

2 

22 


14 


Mathematics 

Natural Science . 


3 


3 


21 
17 




16 


15 


16 




Totals 


162 



h. Technical Subjects 



Writing . . . . 
Drawing. . . . 
Needlework. 

Singing 

Gymnastics. 



Totals. 





3 

(b) 


2 
(b) 


1 

2 


1 

2 


1 

2 


2 


2 


"2 


'2' 


(b) 




2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


(c) 


(c) 


(c) 


(c) 


i 


1 


1 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


2 
9 


3 


3 


3 

7(9) 


3 

7(9) 


2 


7 


6 


9 


9 


7(9) 


7(9) 



3 

14 
6(14) 
14 
18 



55 (63) 



Notes: a. Including art history. 

b. In classes X-VIII occasional drawing and clay modeling during the object 

lessons in German. 

c. Needlework is optional in the upper classes, 

* From Monroe, P., Cyclopedia of Education, vol. ni, pp. 86-87. 

and model lessons, drawing, singing, gymnastics. The work 
of the practical year comprises method and model lessons, 
practice teaching, reports, and discussions. 

In the Studienanstalten the courses of study correspond 
in general to the courses of study in the boys' higher schools. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



219 



though the entire course, including the Lyzeum grades, 
covers thirteen years instead of twelve and the number of 
recitations per week is somewhat smaller. Few higher girls' 
schools maintain Studienanstalten, however, and many girls 
find it practically impossible to secure the kind of education 
provided in such institutions. Since that is the only avenue 
of approach, they are unable to prepare themselves for work 
in the university. 

76. Statistics of higher schools in Germany. In 1912 
there were 1395 higher schools for boys in Germany, dis- 
tributed as follows : 

Table XCII. Distribution of Higher Schools for 
Boys in Germany in 1912 * 



Stales 



Prussia 

Bavaria 

Saxony 

Wiirttemberg 

Baden 

Other States . 

Totals 



Gymna- 
sien 


Real- 

gymna- 

sien 


Oberreal- 
schulen 


Progym- 
nasien 


Real- 
progym- 
nasien 


Real- 
schulen 


339 
48 
19 
18 
18 
83 


143 

5 

21 

7 

9 

29 


97 
9 
5 

12 
11 
29 


30 
31 

"q 

3 


57 

5 

'2 
4 


167 
48 
33 
20 
25 
62 


525 


214 


163 


70 


68 


355 



Totals 



833 

141 

83 

63 

65 

210 

1395 



* Statistischea Jahrbueh der hohertn Sehulen (1913-14), p. 1012, 5. 

From these figures it is evident that the Gymnasium with 
its classical curriculum is still the most prominent of the 
higher schools for boys. 

In Prussia the boys in attendance at the higher schools 
were distributed, as shown in Table XCIII, in 1912. 

In 1909 the distribution of boys according to grade was 
as shown in Table XCIV. 

About one half of the boys who enter Sexta of the Gym- 
nasium or Progymnasium apparently continue into Ober- 



g20 PEINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table XCIII. Distribution of Boys in Higher Schools 
IN Prussia in 1912 * 



Gymnasien. 

Realgymnasien 


103,314 
50,319 
41,986 


Progymnasien. 

Realprogymnasien . . . 
Realschulen 

Six-grade schools .... 


3,787 

4,346 

32,421 


Both 


107,101 


Both 


54,665 


Both 


74,407 




Total 




Nine-grade schools . . 


195,619 


40,554 


235,173 



* Statialisches Jahrbuch der hoheren Schulen (1913-14), p. 1012, 5. 



Table XCIV. f 



Grade 


VI 


V 


IV 


UIII 


OIII 


UII 


Oil 


UI 


01 

8,304 


Total 


Number 


36,949 


34,697 


34,492 


31,184 


27,619 


23,775 


13,616 


10,222 


220,959 



t Cf . Monroe, P., Cyclopedia of Education, vol. m, p. 84. 

Table XCV. Statistics of Higher Schools in Germany 

IN 1911 t 



Schools having a nine-year course . . 

Gymnasien 

Realgymnasien 

Oberrealschulen 

Schools having a six-year course only 

Progymnasien . _ 

Realprogymnasien 

Realschulen, BUrgerschulen, etc 
(Vorschulen) 

Higher schools for girls 

Gymnasien 

Higher schools 

Grand totals 



Schools 



Public Private 



914 

524 
223 
167 

1,186 

81 

63 

629 

413 

828 

89 

789 



2,928 



15 

6 
3 

4 

124 

7 

1 

103 

13 

373 

5 

368 



512 



Teachers 



Public Private 



16,950 

9,769 
3,708 
3,473 

7,230 

570 

384 

5,037 

1,239 

12,398 

1,039 
11,359 



36,578 



221 

157 
31 
33 

975 

36 

3 

903 

33 

4,599 

64 
4,535 



5,795 



Pupils 



Public Private 



306,426 

160,237 
70,357 
75,832 

170,908 

9,509 

7,252 

104,457 

49,690 

234,461 

22,137 
212,324 



711,795 



2,905 

2,451 
304 
150 

16,562 

1,095 

32 

14,989 

466 

79,679 

1,399 

78,280 



99,146 



t Figures quoted from Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1913), 
vol. I, p. 822. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES ni 

sehunda and about one third continue into Oberprima. Of 
boys who enter Sexta of the Realgymnasium or Realprogym- 
nasium about one third continue into Obersekunda and about 
one sixth into Oberprima. Of boys who enter Sexta of the 
Oberrealschide or Realschule about one sixth continue into 
Obersekunda and a little over one sixteenth continue into 
Oberprima, Of all boys entering Sexta of a higher school 
a little over one third persist as far as Obersekunda and 
between one quarter and one fifth continue into Oberprima. 

Table XCV presents figures for all higher schools in 
Germany in 1911. 

77. ** Intermediate schools," etc., in Germany. As it is 
a great mistake to consider all the work of the '* higher 
schools" of Germany as involving secondary education in 
the American sense of that term, so it is a great mistake to 
consider that all secondary education in Germany is con- 
fined to the higher schools above considered. In reality 
elementary education in the American sense of the term 
must be conceived as cutting a cross-section through the 
lower grades of all the higher schools previously considered 
and the Volksschule. Likewise secondary education in the 
American sense of the term must be conceived as cutting a 
cross-section through the upper grades of the higher schools 
above considered and also through a number of other 
schools, including the Intermediate Schools (Mittelschulen) ^ 
*' Citizens' Schools" {Burgerschulen, which are closely allied 
to the Realschulen) ^ certain vocational schools (including 
agricultural schools, Lantwirtschaftsschuleny higher trade 
schools, etc.), continuation schools {Fartbildungsschulen), . 
etc. What proportion of the work in these last-mentioned 
schools should be considered of secondary grade in the 
American sense of the term it is impossible to determine. 
Nevertheless the fact should not be overlooked that much 
of the work peculiar to secondary education in America is 



PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



provided for in schools other than the higher schools com- 
monly classed under the head of "secondary schools" in 
Germany. Vocational education, for instance, is not pro- 
vided for at all in the Oymnasiurriy Realgymnasium, Obef' 
realschule, etc., but is relegated to special vocational schools. 

In Prussia, previous to the regulations of February 3, 
1910, the intermediate school {Mittelschule) had been devel- 
oped less extensively than in other States of the Empire. 
Since the promulgation of those regulations, however, the 
Mittelschule has given promise of extensive development in 
Prussia and may in the future prove an important step in 
the articulation of the Volksschule system and the higher 
schools system. They comprise a nine-grade course which 
in the lower stages have a common course with the Volks- 
schule and in the higher grades may be articulated with the 
higher schools. The course includes the following studies: 
religion, German, Latin, French, English, history, geography, 
mathematics, nature study, and other common subjects.^ 

The importance of continuation schools in Germany may 
be seen from the figures presented in the following table. 

Table XCVI. Continuation Schools in Germany in 1911 * 





Schools 


Pupils 


Industrial continuation schools 


3,300 

700 

5,200 

16,000 


550,000 


Commercial continuation schools 


102,000 


Agricultural continuation schools 


84,000 


^on- vocational continuation schools 


700,000 






Total listed 


25,200 


1,436,000 







* Cf. Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1913), vol. ii, p. 818. The 
figures are in round numbers. 

1 Cf. Monroe, P., Cyclopedia, of Education, vol. iii, p. 78; Statistisches 
Jahrbuch der hoheren Schulen (1913-14), p. 2280 ff.; Kommunales Jahr- 
buch (1913-14), p. 360. 



EST OTHER COUNTRIES 223 

The organization of other vocational schools in the 
, German States is too complicated to permit analysis 
here. It should be recognized, however, that they play 
an important part in the educational systems of the 
Empire of great importance to the student of secondary 
education. 

78. Teachers in Prussian higher schools for boys. All 
teachers in the public higher schools of Prussia are State 
employees who have been certiJBcated by the State author- 
ities. In order to secure such positions they must have 
shown their qualifications: (a) by presenting a leaving cer- 
tificate from a Gymnasium, Realgymnasium, or Oberreal- 
schule; (b) by presenting evidence that they have spent at 
least six semesters at a recognized university; (c) by pas- 
sing examinations in philosophy (including psychology), 
pedagogy, German literature, religion, and in the special 
subjects to be taught (at least two subjects must be in- 
cluded); (d) by spending a Seminar jahr (year in practice 
and observation); (e) by spending a Probe jahr (trial year). 
Having met these requirements successfully, the candidate 
is then qualified for appointment and receives the title Ober- 
lehrer. Older teachers may receive the title Professor. The 
salary of the Oberlehrer begins at 2700 marks ($675) and by 
triennial increases of 700 marks ($175) reaches 4800 marks 
($1200) after nine years of service. From that point the 
triennial increases of 600 marks ($150) bring it up to 7200 
marks ($1800) after twenty-one years of service. To this 
must be added from 560 to 1300 marks ($140-$325) allowed 
as compensation for rent. These figures apply to the salaries 
of the ordinary teachers in boys' higher schools. Salaries 
of headmasters are not much higher than those of the higher 
teachers. In the higher schools for boys men teachers only 
are engaged. In the higher schools for girls both men and 
women teachers are employed, the latter having been pre- 



224 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

pared either at the universities or in the higher normal 
school (Hoheres Lehrerinnenseminar) . 

The training of the higher-school teacher is thorough and 
adequate. His selection and certification are carefully super- 
vised. From those two facts result the high character of the 
teachers employed and the excellent teaching found. In 
spite of what appears to Americans to be a relatively low 
salary schedule, an abundance of excellent material is 
recruited. This arises in large part from the fact that the 
higher-school teacher in Germany is recognized as a pro- 
fessional official of the Government with a social and official 
position on a par with other higher professions. 

79. Higher schools and the social organization. The 
schools of Germany are intimately and functionally related 
to the social structure to an extent not apparent in most 
countries. As evidence of this in Prussia we may note first 
the well-organized and standardized work of the schools 
under rather high centralization of control and adminis- 
tration, typical of the efficient organization of social and 
economic institutions in the State. Secondly, we may note 
the lines of social distinction manifest in the social organi- 
zation of the Prussian State and exemplified in the separa- 
tion of the Volksschule and the higher schools.^ Thirdly, 
we may note the powerful influence of the aristocratic and 
military classes in their struggle to maintain the supremacy 
of the aristocratic Gymnasium throughout the nineteenth 
century and the present status of that school. In the fourth 
place, we may note the characteristic German attitude 
toward women manifest in the failure until recently to pro- 
vide higher education for girls. In the fifth place, we may 

1 As this book goes to press, there is evident in German pedagogical 
journals renewed agitation for the reorganization of German schools so 
as to establish an Einheitschule providing a common educational founda- 
tion for all pupils up to the age of twelve. Cf. Kandel, I., School and 
Society, vol. v, p. 3. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 225 

note the specific points of social organization in connection 
with the relation of the schools to the social and industrial 
phases of German life. These are manifest best, perhaps, 
in the various social, military, professional, and educational 
privileges granted to boys who have successfully completed 
specified parts or all the work of the higher schools. 

Boys who successfully complete the work of the first six 
grades of a higher school receive a certificate which entitles 
them to serve but one year in the army instead of two or 
more required of others. Also such boys have the privilege 
within limits of choosing the time of their military service, 
the regiment in which they may serve, and other privileges 
of a military nature. In addition, since that certificate indi- 
cates a recognized standard of training, it is an indispensable 
requirement for many minor Governnent positions, and in 
many respects it functions much as a part of a civil service 
system. Hence also many mercantile houses require the 
possession of such a certificate of all their apprentices in 
many lines. Thus the acquirement of this certificate estab- 
lishes a well-determined point of demarcation in the higher- 
school system at the close of the sixth grade, noticeable not 
only in the organization of the six-grade schools, but also in 
the falling off of pupils at that point in the nine-grade schools. ^ 

At the end of the nine-year course comes the "maturity" 
examination (Reifeprufung). The passing of that examina- 
tion gives the boy the right of admission to the university 
or higher technical school, and a higher social recognition 
than he can otherwise secure. Since practically the only 
avenue to the higher professions lies through the university, 
it cannot be entered save by first completing the course of 
study in a higher school.^ 

1 Table XCIV. 

2 For details of the privileges granted to boys completing various amounts 
of work in the higher schools of Germany see Statistisckes Jahrbuch der hoheren 
SchiUen (1913-14) . Cf . also Russell, J. E., German Higher Schools, Appendices. 



226 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Such privileges offer to the German boy and his parents 
an appeal that can scarcely be appreciated by the American. 
The ambitious parent struggles hard to give his son the 
benefits of an education in the higher school, although the 
financial burden of tuition alone is not always light. Con- 
trary to the American practice, but quite in accord with 
European practice, higher-school education is not free in 
Germany and tuition is regularly charged, the maximum in 
Prussia being 150 marks ($37.50) per annum. 

8o. Secondary education in Germany and America. 
Though the limits of space have permitted only a general 
outline of secondary education in Germany, sufficient data 
have been presented to indicate a number of important 
differences between secondary education in Prussia and in 
the United States. Some of the more important differences 
may be summarized here, though the reader should be 
warned that fundamental differences in organization make 
difficult comparisons which are frequently made. 

(1) Attention has already been called to the fact that 
"elementary education" and "secondary education" are 
not delimited in Germany as in America by administrative 
divisions. Elementary education in the American sense of 
the term is provided in each of the three systems of edu- 
cation previously outhned. Secondary education in the 
American sense of the term is provided especially in the 
two systems of boys' and girls' higher schools, but also to 
some extent in the intermediate schools and in vocational 
schools which are more directly correlated with the Volks- 
schule. To gain a purview of elementary education one must, 
therefore, examine a cross-section through all three systems 
of schools, and to gain a purview of secondary education 
one must examine the higher grades of the three systems. 
In either case it is quite impossible to designate a specific 
grade as the beginning of secondary education, which must 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES <m 

be conceived as developing gradually out of the lower stages 
of education and without any line of clear demarcation. 
One of the most noteworthy features of the German school 
systems is the fact that whatever school system a boy or 
girl enters he proceeds gradually and without abrupt tran- 
sition from stage to stage. 

(2) Notwithstanding the above-mentioned facts it is true 
that "secondary education" begins at an earlier age and 
that differentiated education begins much earHer in Ger- 
many than in America. Here we may, in some respects at 
least, agree with a German critic: "Admittedly, the second- 
ary school in north Germany begins too early, when it starts 
at nine years of age; but just as surely does the American 
secondary school begin too late." ^ This problem will be 
considered in a later section. 

(3) Lines of social and economic cleavage are much more 
manifest and important in the schools of Germany than in 
the United States. This is clear from the separation, even 
in the earHer stages, of children in the Volksschule and the 
Hohere Schulen, in the fact that no form of vocational edu- 
cation is provided in the higher schools for boys, and in the 
fact that a relatively small number of boys and girls are 
enrolled in the higher schools. Confessedly, the German 
higher schools are designed not for people in general, but 
for special groups. Selection, a legitimate function of 
secondary education, becomes in German higher schools 
selection by elimination or exclusion, whereas in America 
it becomes selection by differentiation of courses and studies 
to meet the needs of individual differences. Because of dif- 
ferences in organization exact comparison between the 
"higher schools" of Prussia and the public high schools 
of the United States becomes difficult, if not impossible. 

^ Kerschensteiner, G., A Comparison of Public Education in Germany and 
in the United States, Bureau of Education Bulletin (1913), no. 24. p. 13. 



228 PEINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Considering higher schools for boys alone in Prussia and 
the public high schools in the United States, we may note 
the following figures : 

Table XCVII. Number of Boys per 100,000 of Total Popu- 
lation IN THE HOHERE ScHULEN OF PrUSSIA AND IN THE 

Public High Schools of the United States in 1909 * 

Theoretic age H-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 Total 

. . V,. T, 1, , (Grade I II III IV I-IV 

Amencan high schools. ... {j^^^^j^gj 194 Hg 74 47 422 

V • «i,„i,o .^o«lc=» i Grade Ull Oil Ul 01 UIIOI 

Prussian higher schools •} Number. ... . 69 34 26 22 115 

* Compiled by the writer from data in Table XCIV and in Report of the United States 
Commissioner of Education (1910), vol. n. 

(4) Fixity of curriculum is the rule in German schools 
and flexibility is the rule in the American high school. In 
Germany the pupil chooses his school, in America he chooses 
his course or even his specific studies. In Germany, after 
a decision has been made as to tlie type of school to be 
attended, there is practically little opportunity for transfer 
to another type of school. This rigidity is all the greater 
because there is httle opportunity for choice of studies 
within any higher school and the curriculum is the same for 
all. The contrast is noticeable with the elective system found 
in America. It is possible that the elective system has been 
carried too far in this country, but it would appear to the 
American educator that it has not been carried far enough 
in Prussia. The development of the Reformgymnasien in 
Germany indicates a strong tendency to modify the school 
system so as to postpone to a later age and grade the deci- 
sion of the curriculum to be engaged in by the pupil in the 
higher school. 

(5) While secondary education in America may, perhaps, 
be considered more extensive than secondary education in 
Prussia in point of the number of individuals that it reaches 
and in point of the differentiated scope of its offerings, it 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 229 

must also be noted that secondary education in Prussia 
(at least in the Hohere Schulen) is more intensive in the 
sense that it is more thorough and systematic. Perhaps the 
advantages and disadvantages in either case are necessarily 
correlated. The period of formal education covered from 
the beginning of school life in both countries is approxi- 
mately the same, from age six to age eighteen. The results, 
however, appear to be far different. The graduate of the 
German higher school is commonly considered to be as far 
advanced in his education as boys in the sophomore class 
of the iVmerican college. This is certainly true of much of his 
attainment in subject-matter, and with respect to the char- 
acter of his development along academic lines. Doubtless the 
reason for much of this is found in the fact that in Germany 
there is a longer school day, a longer school week, and a longer 
school year. However, it is also in part doubtless due to the 
efficiency of instruction. Critics of German and American 
school systems frequently note the lack of thoroughness and 
the superficiality in American secondary education in com- 
parison with the "hard fiber of intellectual discipline" of 
the German higher school. Likewise they note the greater 
freedom of the American secondary school, the individuaHty, 
initiative, and adaptability engendered by it (or by the 
general social stimulus?), in contrast with the rigidity and 
uniformity of the German higher school.^ The contrast 
should not be considered without reference to the conception 
of the intensive, selective aim of the German higher school 
and the extensive aim of the American high school. A proper 
comparison would be between the best fourth of the Ameri- 
can secondary-school pupils and the average pupil in the 
German higher school. ^ It must further be noted that the 
last years of the German higher school take the place of a 
part of our college course, which is itself essentially second- 
1 Kerschensteiner, G., op. cit, p. 14. 2 cf. Table XCVII. 



230 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ary in character. In this connection attention may be called 
to the fact that, while the theoretic age of graduation from 
the German higher school for boys is eighteen, the median 
age is eighteen years and seven months. Figures for candi- 
dates taking the leaving examination of the higher schools 
of Prussia in 1908 indicate that more candidates were twenty 
years of age or older than were eighteen years of age or 
younger, and that the largest age group was that of the 
nineteen year olds. ^ 

(6) In the secondary education of girls is found one of the 
most noticeable differences between the secondary schools 
of Germany and those of the United States. Attention has 
already been called to the fact that in Prussia public higher 
schools for girls is a matter of development within the past 
decade. Again exact comparison in figures is out of the 
question because of differences in organization, but we may 
note that in all the higher schools for girls in Germany in 
1911 there were 234,461 girls distributed over twelve or 
thirteen grades, while in the public high schools alone of the 
United States in 1910 there were 551,624 girls, distributed 
over four grades. Attention has also been called to the fact 
that coeducation is all but unknown in Germany. 

(7) Probably one of the greatest factors contributing to 
the character of the German higher school is found in the 
character of the teacher, who, on the average, is far superior 
to the American high-school teacher. This is due to a num- 
ber of factors — the superior character of the material 
available (due in part to the prestige of the teaching profes- 
sion in Germany), the high standards set, the training which 
the prospective teacher receives, and the high professional 
spirit manifest. These standards and conditions are not 
paralleled in America. In this connection, however, it is 
well to note some circumstances sometimes overlooked. 

* Monroe, P., Cyclopedia of Education, vol. iii, p. 85. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 231 

The most important of these is the fact that the unparalleled 
development of secondary education in America and the 
great increase in the number of secondary-school pupils 
during the past quarter-century created a demand for 
secondary-school teachers which far exceeded the available 
supply of well-prepared men and women. With the high 
school now well established and conditions somewhat set- 
tled, with better facilities provided for training secondary- 
school teachers, and with the establishment of standards 
which are now being formulated, the secondary-school 
teacher of America should in the near future assume a more 
favorable position for comparison with his German colleague. 
(8) Back of all the various points of difference in the 
American and German school systems lie fundamental 
differences in social ideals which must always be kept in 
mind when comparing the two systems or when examining 
either. In both cases the character of secondary education 
is determined fundamentally by social ideals which are 
buried deep in the lives and customs of the two peoples. 
The eflSciency of either system must be interpreted in terms 
of the dominant social ideals and the form of social organi- 
zation which determine the character of the State itself. 

II. Secondary Education in France 

8i. The system of education in France. Of all important 
countries France possesses the most highly centralized form 
of educational control and administration. In that country 
the entire system of public education is under the charge 
of the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts and his 
subordinate officials or bureaus. By them the final control 
and administration of the schools is determined, the pro- 
grams of study organized, the schools inspected, the quali- 
fications of teachers prescribed, and the examination of 



232 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

pupils controlled. Little is left for local participation in the 
affairs of education except a certain amount of initiative 
in establishing schools, the administration of certain routine 
matters, and the payment of funds in support of the schools. 
The local community may decide whether or not a school is 
wanted in some cases. They may provide for the construc- 
tion, equipment, and maintenance of a school, but once such 
a school is established its control and administration passes 
out of their hands into the hands of the Ministry of Public 
Instruction and Fine Arts. 

France, like Prussia, maintains three separate systems 
of schools: (a) schools for boys and girls of the common 
people, of which the basis is the "primary school" {ecole 
primaire); (h) "secondary schools" for boys (lycee de gar- 
gons and college de gargons); (c) "secondary schools" for 
girls (lycee de jeunes filles, college de jeunes filles^ and cows 
secondaire de jeunes files). Boys and girls of the common 
people enter the "primary school" proper at the age of five 
or six (many have previously attended the ecole maternelle), 
where they remain in the ecole jyrimaire elementaire up to the 
age of about thirteen or in the ecole primaire superieure up 
to the age of about fifteen. Some enter the ecole practique 
(vocational school). Boys of higher social or economic stand- 
ing enter the "secondary school" (lycee or college) proper 
at about the age of ten and remain there (for the full course) 
up to the age of about seventeen. To the "secondary 
school" proper, however, there is attached a preparatory 
division (division prSparatoire) for boys of ages six to seven, 
and an elementary division (division Slementaire) for boys 
of ages eight to nine. In some cases an "infant class" pre- 
cedes the preparatory division. As a matter of fact the 
French "secondary school" for boys is an institution com- 
plete in itself, being neither dependent on the "primary 
school" for its supply of pupils nor leaving education other 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 233 

than professional for later study in college or university. 
Theoretically pupils may pass from the "primary school" 
to the lycee or college and "secondary education is coordi- 
nated with primary education in such a way as to follow a 
course of primary studies normally four years in length." ^ 
Practically there is no such articulation between the two 
systems and few "primary-school" pupils, except those 
receiving Government scholarships through competitive 
examinations, pass from the 6cole jprimaire to the ecole 
secondaire. The selection of the school which a boy may 
enter in France is determined almost entirely by social and 
economic factors. 

Girls of the higher social and economic classes enter the 
"secondary school" proper (lycee ^ college y or cours secon- 
daire) at the age of about twelve. They enter the "primary 
classes" of that school, however, at the age of nine, and the 
"infant class" which precedes it at the age of eight. They 
remain in the "secondary school" (for the full course) up 
to the age of about seventeen or eighteen. 

From this limited preliminary description of the three 
school systems of France it is apparent that, as in the case 
of the Prussian systems, the so-called "secondary schools" 
must be considered to include both elementary and second- 
ary education in the American sense of those terms and that 
the "primary school" of France is not to be considered as 
corresponding completely to the "elementary school" of 
America. In this connection it is interesting to note that 
a plan for a unified national school system was presented 
before the Chamber of Deputies in a bill introduced in 1913: 

The professed intention of the bill is to establish equality of 
opportunity for all children. For this purpose its author would 
put an end to the dualism of the existing system which provides 

^ Decret du 31 Mai, 1912. Cf. Plan d' Etudes et Programmes de rEn- 
seignement Secondaire des Gargons (11th edition), p. 1. 



234 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

for one kind of school for the masses and another for those favored 
of fortune, and substitute "the national school," organized in 
three cycles. In the plan outlined by M. Buisson, the first cycle is 
devoted to elementary primary education to be given uniformly 
to all children five to eleven years of age; the second cycle is for 
children from eleven to fourteen years of age; in this cycle the 
education will be varied according to the requirements or aptitudes 
of the pupils, but in spite of these pedagogic differences perfect 
social equality will be maintained; in the third cycle education 
will be distinctly vocational {'professionelle)^ the term being used 
in the widest sense. ^ 

Whatever may be the likelihood that education in France 
will be developed along these lines in the near future, it is 
nevertheless true that the intent of the bill represents the 
attitude of many people in France toward the existing tri- 
partite system of schools, with distinctions based largely 
on social and economic considerations. 

82, Tjrpes of ** secondary schools " for boys in France. 
The system of "secondary education" for boys in France 
at the present time is that inaugurated by the regulations 
of May 31, 1902, as modified by the regulations of Novem- 
ber 15, 1912, which went into effect in October, 1913. 
According to those regulations, two types of "secondary 
schools" are recognized, the lycSe and the college. These 
differ not so much in the character of their courses nor 
in their general organization, but in the manner of their 
establishment and support. The lycSe is entirely a state 
school, established, directed, and financed by the National 
Government. The college is a secondary school of the same 
character in general established and supported by a com' 
mune (municipality), but under the surveillance, direction, 
and control of the central authorities. Thus schools of both 
types are under the^ direction and administration of the 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1913), vol. I, 
p. 799. Cf. Revue Universitaire (March 15, 1913), pp. 252-55. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 235 

state and conform to the same general regulations as to 
curriculum, organization, administration, etc. While the 
two institutions are nominally of equal rank and are de- 
signed to provide similar education, the lycee stands higher 
in popular estimation and commonly is superior in the char- 
acter of the work done. Theoretically at least, uniformity is 
the rule in the lycee and college and the same standards obtain 
in all parts of the Republic, conforming to the particular and 
minute regulations of the central authorities. 

The "secondary" school proper consists of two depart- 
ments called cycles, one (premier cycle) of four grades, the 
other (seconde cycle) of three grades, — the two (which are 
sequentially related) providing education for boys of ages 
about ten to seventeen or eighteen. To the first cycle are 
commonly attached a preparatory department (division 
preparatoire) of two grades (ages six and seven) and an 
elementary department (division eUmentaire) of two grades 
(ages eight and nine). In the first cycle, comprising grades 
sixth to third, pupils have a choice of two sections (A and 
B), Division A studying Latin and Division B not. In the 
second cycle, comprising the second, first, and philosophy- 
mathematics classes, a choice is offered in classes second and 
first of four sections (A, B, C, D). Roughly those sections 
may be classified as: Section A — Classical Course; Section 
B — Latin-Modern Language Course; Section C — Latin- 
Scientific Course; Section D — Science-Modern Language 
Course. In the Philosophy-Mathematics *'form" pupils 
are divided into two general groups, one concentrating on 
philosophy, the other on mathematics, each of these groups 
being divided into Sections A and B. The general scheme 
may be seen from the plan of organization outlined on 
page 236.1 

In addition to these regular divisions and sections there 
1 Plan d']£tudes, etc., previously cited, p. x ff. 





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IN OTHER COUNTRIES 237 

may be special sections in the lycee preparing boys for the 
military school at Saint-Cyr, the poly technique, and the 
6cole centrale. In some cases also there may be a fifth section 
or subsection with a course of three or four years correspond- 
ing roughly to the Realschule course in Prussia. 

It is to be noted that a much greater amount of flexibility 
is to be found in the French higher school for boys than in 
the German. The feature of flexibility was established in 
the reorganization of the curriculum of the school in 1902, 
and its introduction in part may have been due to the in- 
fluence of the elective system in the American secondary 
school. Speaking of the curriculum established in 1902, 
M. Gabriel Compayre, former Inspector General of Public 
Instruction in France, said: 

The most striking feature is that, in place of one single and 
uniforrQ course for all pupils, several are provided for their selec- 
tion. Here is obvious the influence of the elective courses common 
in the United States, whose existence and success were noticed by 
the present writer in the Report on American Secondary Education, 
presented after his return from the World Exposition at Chicago to 
the Minister of Public Instruction in France in 1893.^ 

More detailed analysis of the French lycSe is presented 
on page 238. 

83. Other forms of secondary education in France. 
While the term "secondary education" (enseignement 
secondaire) is applied in France exclusively to the lycee and 
college, certain types of schools also found in France must 
be considered as furnishing education more or less secondary 
in the American sense. The necessity of providing for an 
extension of school facilities for the common people some- 
what beyond the primary schools and with special reference 
to their industrial needs was recognized as early as the pas- 
sage of the Law of 1833 (the Guizot Law) authorizing the 
* Cf. Monroe, P., Cyclopedia oj Educatiout vol. 11, p. 663. 



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IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



«39 



establishment of higher primary schools (VScole primaire 
swperieure). The law had httle effect mitil money was 
appropriated by the Government (beginning in 1878). The 
real development of the higher primary schools began in 
earnest after the passage of the law of 1892 which estab- 
lished two different types of such schools, the higher prim- 
ary schools and practical schools of commerce and industry. 
These higher grade schools may retain pupils up to fifteen 
years of age, who for admission have obtained the primary- 
school certificate. The higher primary schools are not voca- 
tional though offering special courses in drawing, manual 
training, and elementary science. The vocational schools 
proper (Scoles pratiques) provide for commerce and industry. 
The extent of these two types of schools in 1911-12 may be 
seen from the following table. 

Table XCIX. Pupils in Higher Primary Schools and 
Vocational Schools, 1911 * 



Total 



Higher primary schools and continuation 

classes 

Practical schools of commerce and industry . . 
National technical schools 

Total 



Boys 


Girls 


51,057 

10,102 

1,588 


51,630 

2,687 


62,747 


54,317 



102,687t 
12,789 

1,588 

117,064 



* Data from Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1913), vol. i, p. 791, 
corrected from data given, ibid. (1914), vol. i, p. 722. 
t About one half of these were in continuation classes {coura compUmentaires). 



"Thus, altogether, about 118,000 young people of the 
industrial classes were continuing their studies in schools 
comparable with the upper grades and junior high schools 
of the United States." ^ 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1914), vol, i, 
p. 722. 



240 PRmCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

84. Secondary education of girls in France. Previous to 
1880 there existed no public secondary schools for girls in 
France. In that year a comprehensive system of public 
secondary schools for girls was established comprising na- 
tional lyceeSy communal colleges, and secondary courses, the 
last being but a temporary expediency, paving the way for 
the later establishment of a secondary school proper. As 
in Germany, "secondary schools" for boys and "secondary 
schools" for girls are separate institutions, and in France 
they are of a radically different nature. 

The "secondary schools" for girls comprise a five-year 
course divided into two departments, the first of three grades 
and the latter of two grades. Preceding the regular five- 
year course, however, there are commonly attached to the 
"secondary school" proper a one-year infant class and three 
elementary classes. In addition there exists a special class 
in some of the most important lycees designed to prepare 
girls for the normal school at Sevres. 

The curriculum and general organization of the secondary 
schools for girls may be seen from Table C. 

85. Statistics of " secondary schools '* in France. The 
figures presented in Table CI will indicate the number of 
secondary schools and secondary school pupils in France 
in 1912-13 — enrollment for lycies, colleges^ and cours 
secondaires only. 

While the differences in organization make comparisons 
difficult, it may be noted that in 1912 there was one "sec- 
ondary school" to every 74,579 of the total population as 
compared with one public high school for every 8657 of total 
population in the United States: that in France in 1912 one 
person out of every 291 of total population was in some 
secondary school, while in the United States in 1911-12 one 
person in every 88 was in a public high school. The com- 
parison is all the stronger when it is remembered that in the 



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242 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Table CI. French Secondary Schools ASiD Pupils in 

1912-13 * 





Schools 


Pupils 




Boys 


Girls 


Total 


Boys 


Girls 


Total 


Iiycees 


112 
230 

342 


53 
79 
57 


165 

309 

57 


62,092 
36,796 


19,898 

11,882 

5,565 


81,990 


Colleges 


48,678 


Secondary courses 


5,565 


Total 


189 


531 


98,888 


37,345 


136,233 







* Figures taken from Annuaire Statistique, vol. 32, pp. 26-31, 24 *. 



French secondary schools for boys seven ^ades or more are 
included and in the secondary schools for girls eight or more 
grades are included, whereas in the American high school but 
four grades are considered. It cannot be considered that the 
needs for secondary education in France are being met in any 
adequate manner. This is in part due to the social distinc- 
tions already referred to, in part to the inadequate provision 
for secondary schools, and in part to the fact the secondary 
education in France is not free. Combined with those fac- 
tors is the fact that the French lycSes and colleges are in part 
boarding-sdhools, a fact which seriously affects the matter 
of popular education. Approximately one third of the pu- 
pils in the lycies and colleges for boys are boarders or half 
boarders. This fact indicates clearly that schools are not 
numerous enough nor located centrally enough to meet the 
needs of many, and that the cost of living away from home 
prevents many boys from receiving the benefits of a second- 
ary education. The actual fees charged, however, are not 
large from the American viewpoint. In the provincial lycies 
the range of fees is from 40 francs ($8) per annum for day 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 243 

pupils to 700 francs ($140) per annum for boarders in the 
infant classes and from 320 francs ($64) per annum for day 
pupils to 1250 francs ($250) per annum for boarders in the 
highest classes. In Paris and the larger lycies the fees are 
somewhat higher. 

86. The secondaiy-school teacher in France. As in 
Germany so in France the character of the teaching staff 
stands out in strong contrast to the character of the teaching 
staff of the American secondary school. This is due to sev- 
eral factors, the principal of which are the training which 
the secondary school teacher in France must undergo, the 
relatively small nimaber of teachers required, and the esteem 
and honor in which the profession is held. Due in jmrt to 
the two last factors the competition for secondary school 
positions is so severe that the best material for teachers 
is secured through the elimination of the poorer. 

In point of professional requirements the minimum 
qualifications of a candidate to teach in the secondary 
school are: (a) the bachelor's degree from a lycee or college; 
(b) two or three years of university or normal-school study. 
This accomplished the candidate receives a licence. The 
holder of a licence may then become a candidate for the title 
of agrege which requires the passing of a severe competitive 
examination necessitating at least two years* preparation. 
Holders of this title only are appointed to positions in the 
lycees where the professeur agreg6 has a legal right to a posi- 
tion as professor with practically life tenure. The standards 
for teachers in the college are distinctly inferior to those for 
teachers in the lycSe, a fact which to some extent explains 
the acknowledged ioferiority of the work done in the former. 
In the college^ in addition to some professeurs agregSs and 
those holding the master's degree, are found some teachers 
holding the bachelor's degree only or those with special 
certificates. 



244 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Again as in Germany the salaries paid appear small to the 
American teacher. All teachers in the secondary schools are 
divided into six classes. The teacher must have been at least 
two years in service before he is eligible for promotion from 
the sixth class (the lowest) into the next class. He must 
have been nineteen years in the service before he can be 
promoted into the first (highest) class. For full professors 
in the lycees (who receive the highest salaries for teaching 
alone) the pay ranges in the provincial schools from 3700 
francs ($740) to 6700 francs ($1340). In Paris the salary 
for the regular professor ranges from 5500 francs ($1100) 
to 9000 francs ($1800), professeurs agreges each receiving 
500 francs ($100) additional. 

Women teachers in the secondary schools for girls secure 
appointments by completing the work of the secondary 
school and securing its diploma and by securing the agrega- 
tion. Ordinarily the certificate to teach in the girls secondary 
school is obtained after completing the second year of work 
in the normal school and passing competitive examinations. 

87. Secondary education and the social organization in 
France. France in the not very distant past has at different 
periods been a monarchy, an empire, and a repubhc, and 
each of those stages through which French society has 
passed has left its mark on the secondary schools of France 
at the present time. The social distinctions manifest in the 
differentiation between "elementary schools" and "second- 
ary schools" is in part at least a result of the days of the 
monarchy and aristocratic prestige. The high degree of 
centralized control shows the effect of Napoleon's admin- 
istration during the First Empire. Recent reorganization 
and numerous separate movements indicate an attempt 
(rather than its fulfillment) to adapt the secondary schools 
to the demands of a modern republic. 

A form of secondary education adapted to a republican 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 245 

or democratic form of social organization would appear to 
postulate at least three important characteristics: (1) schools 
free to all children and open to all classes on an equal basis; 

(2) schools sufficient in number to afford adequate means 
for educating as many children as can attend and so located 
that undue expense is not to be incurred by their parents; 

(3) schools and courses so diversified as to meet the needs 
of all classes of children. In no one of those three important 
respects can the French Republic be said to have approached 
the solution of democratic or republican education. Fees 
are regularly charged; secondary schools are quite insuffi- 
cient in number and not satisfactorily distributed; while the 
curricula estabHshed in 1902 did much to provide flexibility 
of studies adapted to the diversified needs of pupils, insuffi- 
cient provision has as yet been made for many forms of 
education, and in the case of girls imjust discrimination has 
been made with regard to provision for education leading to 
the university. 

88. Secondary education in France and America. Much 
that has been said in comparing secondary education in 
Germany and in America may also be said in comparing 
secondary education in France and America. Thus second- 
ary education in France and in Germany differs from that 
in America in the following important respects: (a) the 
triple school systems running more or less parallel and with- 
out effective articulation; (6) the separation of those sys- 
tems along lines of social and economic cleavage; (c) the 
separation of secondary education for boys and girls; (d) the 
earlier beginning of secondary education in the schools; (e) 
the absence of administrative division between elementary 
and secondary education in the American sense of those 
terms, and the gradual transition from lower to higher 
forms of education; (/) the complete separation of vocational 
schools from other schools; (g) the intensive education pro- 



246 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

vided in the higher schools leading directly to professional 
work in the university without the interposition of college; 
(h) the existence of uniform courses of study for all schools 
of the same type; (i) the high character of the teaching 
staffs; (j) the fact that the number of "higher schools" is 
relatively small and that a relatively small number of boys 
and girls are enrolled in higher schools other than special 
vocational schools, etc. 

Governmentally France is republican or democratic: 
educationally it is aristocratic. "In many respects France 
and America have common fundamental problems to solve 
through education and in no small degree through secondary 
education. As at present organized the secondary schools of 
France are better suited to a non-democratic form of society 
than to a republic, are more comparable to those of mon- 
archal states of Europe than to those of America, and in 
organization and administration have little to offer to the 
student of secondary education in America. 

III. Secondary Education in England 

89. Organization of secondary education in England, 
In Germany and in France the State control of secondary 
education was early assumed and at present is practically 
complete, with the result that secondary education in those 
countries may be interpreted in terms of organized systems 
wherein uniformity and standardization are the rule. In 
England, on the other hand, there has always been manifest 
a reluctance on the part of the State to assume the respon- 
sibility for a real public system of education. Thus it was 
not until 1870 that any real system of elementary schools 
was inaugurated and it was not until 1902 that any real 
progress was made in the establishment of a system of pubhc 
secondary schools. Even at present it is scarcely possible 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 247 

to speak of a system of secondary schools, but several differ- 
ent types or systems must be considered. 

In England more than in any other country private initia- 
tive has controlled education and particularly secondary 
education. From the beginning of secondary education in 
that country dominant control in the field of secondary 
education has been exercised by the clergy, by corporations 
(independent foundations, guilds, etc.)> and by individuals. 
During the latter half of the nineteenth century municipal- 
ities assumed more and more influence. Only within the 
past few years has any serious attempt been made to organ- 
ize national control over any part of secondary education. 

In the following sections two general classes of secondary 
schools of England will be considered briefly: (1) Endowed 
and private schools, with particular attention to the " great 
public schools" of the "first grade"; (2) secondary schools 
which have to som% extent come within the supervision of 
the Government and are on the "grant list" or the Hst of 
"efficient" schools. 

90. The "Great PubKc Schools'' of England.^ For more 
than five centiu'ies after their beginning in 1382 the "great 
public grammar schools" were the dominant institution for 
secondary education in England and their unchallenged 
preeminence continues at the present time. In 1867 the 

^ The reader familiar with the nomenclature of American schools must 
beware of misinterpreting the nomenclature of the English schools. The 
term "public" is applied in England to the endowed schools here mentioned 
which are just the reverse of the "public schools" of the United States. 
Since the majority of those schools are boarding-schools, the American 
reader is likely also to misinterpret the term "board schools," which is 
regularly applied in England to schools under the control of school boards 
and has nothing to do with boarding-schools. The term "grammar schools" 
is to be understood from the old Latin grammar school and, of course, has 
no reference to the term as employed in the United States for the "gram- 
mar" grades of the elementary school. Further, "preparatory schools " in 
England prepare for the "great public schools," not for the university as 
the "preparatory schools" in America prepare for college. 



248 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

British Schools Inquiry Commission placed those schools 
in an exclusive class comprising the "first-grade" secondary 
schools, a distinction which obtains informally at present. 
In this group the following (and no others) were included: 
Winchester (founded in 1382), Eton (1440), Shrewsbury 
(1552), Westminster (1560), Rugby (1561), Harrow (1571), 
Charterhouse (1611), St. Paul's (1509), Merchant Taylors' 
(1561). Of these all except the two last-mentioned are 
boarding-schools. The historic importance of these schools, 
the selected class of their patronage, and the superior char- 
acter of the education provided has given them a preeminent 
position among the secondary schools not only of England 
but of the world, and justifies the view which regards them 
as national institutions. They occupy a position in England 
that is paralleled by no other institution for secondary edu- 
cation in any other country and their influence on English 
history and on English society has probably been greater 
than any other institution. Any complete analysis of their 
place among the schools of England would carry us far 
beyond the Hmitations of our present purpose. We may 
note, however, certain material points. Schools of that 
type cannot properly be considered as an important part 
of a system of public secondary schools which is designed 
for boys in general. The opportunity for secondary educa- 
tion in such schools must perforce be limited, highly selec- 
tive, and restricted. Although they are termed "public 
schools," they are essentially private, and stand in strong 
contrast to the secondary schools of Germany, France, 
and America. It may well be questioned whether the exist- 
ence of such highly selective schools not directly controlled 
by the State have not acted as a serious check on the develop- 
ment of a system of real public secondary schools. 

Needless to say, schools of this type are conservatively 
classical and are dominated by preparation for entrance to 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 249 

the university. Programs of study and organizations differ 
for the several schools so that it is impossible to present 
even a typical program. Language, especially the ancient 
languages, and mathematics all but monopolize the cur- 
riculum. According to the specialist in education in foreign 
countries (United States Bureau of Education) a typical 
program comprises the following subjects: ^ 

Classical side: Religion, English, Latin, Greek, French, his- 
tory, geography, arithmetic, mathematics, 
natural sciences, drawing, singing. 

Modern side: Mathematics, English, Latin, French, German, 
history and geography, natural science, draw- 
ing, singing. 

Boys enter these schools at the age of thirteen or fourteen 
after a "preparatory" course in one of the numerous pri- 
vate "preparatory schools" which exist almost solely for the 
purpose of preparing boys for admission to the endowed 
schools. Nominally there are six "forms" or grades, though 
the lowest is frequently omitted and in some schools other 
forms are missing. Grading and promotion are flexibly 
organized and administered and it is possible for each boy 
to pass through the school much according to his individual 
ability and application. However, if he reaches the sixth 
form early he commonly remains in that grade until about 
the age of eighteen or nineteen when he enters the univer- 
sity. 

91. Other endowed and private secondary schools. In 
addition to the nine "great public schools," comprising the 
group of "first-grade secondary schools," there is a very 
large number of other endowed, proprietary, and private 
secondary schools. Some of these endowed schools are of 

^ Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. i, 
pp. 676^77. 



250 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

a character quite con:Q)arable to that of the "first-grade" 
schools except, perhaps, in historical and social prestige. 
Proprietary and private schools controlled by individuals, 
stock companies, etc., range all the way from very good to 
very bad. Their varied character prevents anything like 
satisfactory analysis in small space. In general these schools 
all imitate the great pubHc schools. Some of the best in 
every important respect should be ranked on a par with the 
"first-grade" schools. At the other extreme are schools 
which must be considered as commercial ventures of a per- 
nicious character. Between the two extremes are found 
schools of all sorts and grades. 

92. The old municipal "board" secondary schools. 
While there was no serious attempt to develop a national 
system of secondary schools in England until the period 
1899-1902, and while the numerous endowed and private 
secondary schools dominated the field, many municipalities 
throughout the country had established public "board" 
schools under the control of local authorities. Their char- 
acters varied widely according to the different communities, 
and uniformity was not to be found. With the beginning 
of the development of a national system in 1899-1902 those 
"board" schools were merged into schools of the type con- 
sidered in the following section. 

93. " Grant-list " and ** efficient " secondary schools. 
The beginning of a system of public secondary schools in 
England is found in the creation of a Board of Education 
for England and Wales in 1899 which provided a central 
agency for educational affairs. By the law of 1902 the con- 
trol of non-private secondary schools was taken out of the 
hands of the older school boards and placed in the hands of 
county and county-borough councils. That act provided: * 

1 Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1914), vol. I, 
pp. 686-87. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 251 

The local education authority shall consider the educational 
needs of their area and take such steps as seem to them desirable, 
after consultation with the board of education, to supply or aid 
the supply of education other than elementary, and to promote the 
general co-ordination of all forms of education. 

In accordance with this law new schools of secondary 
character supported by public funds have been established 
and others brought within the scope of State-aided second- 
ary education. The Board of Education has adopted a 
scheme of granting national funds to local schools as a means 
of bringing the secondary schools under its supervision and 
to some extent under its control. The acceptance of aid 
from the Board of Education and submission to its super- 
vision is voluntary on the part of the school authorities, but 
when the school accepts grant aid it must meet the require- 
ments and submit to the supervision of the national author- 
ities. This method of increasing the State control of second- 
ary education has been successful in American States and 
bids fair to establish a real system of secondary schools in 
England and Wales. Within about a dozen years after the 
beginning of the movement its success has been great. 
According to the latest official returns (before the war) the 
number of secondary schools in England receiving grants 
was 898, including 402 controlled by local authorities, 424 
endowed schools, 26 schools belonging to the Girls' Public 
Day School Trust, and 46 controlled by Roman Catholic 
orders or communities. These schools enrolled 158,832 
pupils (85,110 boys, 73,722 girls) and employed 9126 full- 
time teachers and about 3000 part-time instructors.^ These 
are known as "grant-list" schools. In addition there are 
a number of private secondary schools which invite the 
inspection of and a certain amount of supervision by the 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1914), vol. i, 
pp. 687-88. 



252 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Board of Education but which do not conform entirely to 
the requirements for grant aid. These are known as "effi- 
cient" schools. Altogether in 1913-14 there were 1176 
secondary schools in England, with an enrollment of about 
222,275 pupils, in some relation to the Board of Education.^ 
However, the majority of private schools do not come within 
this system. 

The reader will not fail to note that the situation in Eng- 
land at the present day is somewhat analogous to the situa- 
tion in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth 
century when the public high school was in the midst of 
its struggle for supremacy with the private academy. He 
should note also that the regulations of the Board of Edu- 
cation provide that a certain proportion of places in the 
grant-aided secondary school (ordinarily about twenty-five 
per cent) must be open free to the class of children that 
attend the public elementary school. Thus, although falling 
far short of thoroughly democratic ideals of free public 
education, the regulations of the Board of Education have 
greatly improved the opportunities of the common people 
for seer adary education. 

94. The curricula of English secondary schools. It is 
totally impossible to speak of the curriculum of the English 
secondary school in the definite sense in which one may 
speak of the curriculum of German or French higher schools. 
In the more prominent endowed and private schools there 
is a certain amount of uniformity determined by the fact 
that they have a common aim — preparation for the uni- 
versity. The conservative character of the older schools 
will probably change only as the spirit of modernism affects 
the universities. In the lesser private schools the curricula 
vary more or less according to the particular classes of 
patronage invited or given. In the grant-list schools there is 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. i, 
p. 677. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 253 

manifest a tendency to develop greater uniformity, although 
that is far from having been consummated at present. 

The Board of Education defines a secondary school as 
one which 

offers to each of its pupils a progressive course of instruction ... in 
subjects necessary to a good general education, upon lines suitable 
for pupils of an age range as wide as from twelve to seventeen. 

If such a school is to receive "grant aid" the following 
subjects must be offered and are obhgatory: English lan- 
guage and literature, at least one language other than Eng- 
lish, geography, history, mathematics, science, and draw- 
ing. A curriculum including two languages other than 
English, but making no provision for instruction in Latin, 
will only be approved where the board are satisfied that the 
omission of Latin is for the educational advantage of the 
school. Instruction in science must include practical work 
by the pupils. Adequate provision must be made for organ- 
ized games, physical exercises, manual instruction, and sing- 
ing. Schools for girls must offer practical instruction in 
domestic subjects, such as needlework, cookery , ^ laundry 
work, housekeeping, and household hygiene. Considerable 
latitude is allowed the local authorities to adapt the cur- 
riculum to special local needs. 

95. The secondary education of girls in England. As in 
all countries of Europe the education of girls was long de- 
layed in England. There, too, as in America, Germany, 
France, and other countries, secondary education for girls 
began as a result of private initiative. The movement was 
particularly noticeable in the decade or so preceding 1892 
when endowments had been established for about forty- 
five girls' schools. The Girls' PubUc Day School Company 
(Trust), one of those semi-private, semi-public school 
societies which have been so active in the educational his- 



254 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tory of England, established thirty-four schools between 
1873 and 1897. Many of those schools, together with 
others, came under the regulations of 1902 regarding grant 
aid, and thus came more or less into the pubHc "system" 
in the sense previously suggested. 

While coeducation is by no means the usual practice in 
secondary schools in England (quite the opposite, of course, 
in endowed and private schools) economic factors have 
affected the situation in many smaller communities and 
even in some of the larger towns. Of the 928 schools in 
England and Wales which were recognized by the Board 
of Education as "eflB.cient" in 1909-10, there were 15( 
schools in which boys and girls were taught together 
throughout the school and 23 in which they were taught 
together in some classes. y 

96. Secondary schools and other depar^ne^ of educa- 
tion. The absence of an organized system of education 
in England necessarily means a lack of close articulation 
between the various departments. The more prominent 
endowed and private schools recruit their pupils from the 
"preparatory schools" which are designed almost exclu- 
sively to prepare boys for the examinations via which they 
may pass into the secondary schools. In 1910 there were 
about 360 schools of that type with an average enrollment 
of thirty-seven pupils. Each important "pubHc" school has 
its own group of fitting schools. 

With regard to the public elementary schools: ^ 

The official regulations declare it to be "an important though 
subsidiary object of the elementary school to discover individual 
children who show promise of exceptional capacity, and to develop 
their special gifts — so that they may be qualified to pass at the 
proper age into secondary schools, and be able to derive the 

1 Cf. Smith, A. T., in Monroe, P. (Editor), A Cyclopedia of Education, 
vol. II, p. 473. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES ^55 

maximum of benefit from the education there offered them.'* 
The transfer of pupils from elementary to secondary schools 
should take place not later than the twelfth year or age, but an 
earlier age is encouraged by a grant paid on transferred pupils 
between the ages of ten and twelve years. The main grant in 
secondary schools, however, is paid in respect to pupils between 
the ages of twelve and eighteen years. 

For children of ordinary ability who leave the elementary school 
at twelve or thirteen years of age, evening schools offer opportu- 
nity for continued training, and as these schools are classed under 
the head of higher education, there are two diverging roads leading 
upward from the elementary schools.^ 

For public schools the general scheme of articulation may 
be seen from the following table which approximately 
represents the situation. 

Table CII 

Age in years 7 8 9 10 11 12 IS li 15 16 17 18 19 

Elementary " standard "... / UIII IV V VI VII 



Secondary school 

Higher elementary school 
Continuation school - 
Higher institutions.. . . 



1 2 3 4 5 

12 2 (4) 
12 3 4 5 



It may be seen from this rough table that the articu- 
lation between the elementary and secondary schools is 
loose or flexible according to one's viewpoint. The over- 
lapping of the last grades of the elementary school and the 
earlier grades of the secondary school is noticeable. The 
draft which the "grant-list" schools make on the public 
elementary schools may be observed from Table CIII. 

Admission of students to the college or university is al- 
ways through examinations. To the universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge boys are commonly admitted via exami- 
nations from the endowed and private schools. Modern 
regional universities, such as those of London, Manchester, 
etc., draw their students from a less restricted class. 
1 Board of Education Report (1911-12), pp. 48, 60. 



256 PRmCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table CIII. Enrollment of Pupils in England and 
Wales, 1911-12* 

Elementary schools 6,041,921 

Secondary schools on grant-list 165,617 

Technical, art, and evening schools on grant-list 843,738 

Higher elementary schools 9,360 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1913), vol. i, pp. 738-39. 

97. Secondary schools and the social organization in 
England. For centuries the greater part of secondary edu- 
cation in England has been carried on by private and en- 
dowed institutions, the great majority of which were board- 
ing-schools. In no other country has the private or semi- 
private school played so large a part in secondary education, 
and probably in no other country has the boarding-school 
played so important a role, though common throughout 
Europe. In its dependence on private secondary schools 
England stands in marked contrast with Germany, France, 
America, and most important states. Objections to the non- 
public school in England are many and its weaknesses are 
evident. It has prevented or at any rate delayed, the devel- 
opment of free public and universal secondary education. 
It has prevented many children from receiving the benefit 
of higher education. It has fostered conservatism and tra- 
dition. It has prevented a desirable degree of uniformity 
and standardization in secondary education. It has been 
a system of education which was well adapted to the needs 
and opportunities of a few, but it has neglected the needs of 
the many. It has fostered a spirit of class distinction of 
great social significance. All these strictures are justified 
and are recognized in England as well as elsewhere. On the 
other hand, if the theory dominant in English education 
up to the present be accepted, if it be granted that second- 
ary education for the purpose of developing leaders is a ten- 
able theory, then many advantages can be shown to have 
resulted from the English secondary schools. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 257 

To the selected group of boys who are able to attend such 
schools as are represented by the better class of endowed 
and private institutions there is afforded an education^ a 
training which is far more than instruction with emphasis 
on the intellectual side. Whatever faults may be attributed 
to English secondary schools of the type considered here, 
they must certainly be balanced in part by the character of 
the moral, social, and physical training which the endowed 
schools of the better class undoubtedly afford. To that 
training certain elements evidently contribute much: the 
athletic and out-of-door life which is even more extensive 
than in America; the intimate social relations between the 
students and between students and teachers; the high tra- 
ditional ideals which permeate the whole atmosphere of the 
schools. All this has had its effect and has made the en- 
dowed schools of England a powerful force affecting English 
society and public life. For instance, Eton alone has fur- 
nished England with ten prime ministers, twenty-two gov- 
ernor-generals of India, and innumerable cabinet ministers 
and other public men. 

While the secondary education afforded by the endowed 
and private schools of England has been satisfactory for the 
higher classes — probably superior to that which will ever 
be afforded by purely public schools — secondary education 
for the other classes of society has been quite inadequate. 
The movement inaugurated by the act of 1902 was the result 
of a recognition of the inadequacy of existing forms of sec- 
ondary education with reference to the needs of the middle 
and lower classes. If the plans of the Board of Education 
and of educators in general succeed, a real approximation 
to equality of opportunity in secondary education may be 
expected in England in the not-distant future. Such a move- 
ment should mean : (1) an extension of truly pubhc second- 
ary schools; (2) the elimination, or at any rate the reduc- 



258 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tion, of tuition fees now regularly charged even in the "grant- 
list" secondary schools; (3) the greater extension of courses 
adapted to the differentiated needs of boys and girls; (4) 
a great reduction in the number of privately and ecclesiasti- 
cally controlled secondary schools; (5) a change in the atti- 
tude of the people toward social distinctions in secondary 
education. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Consider the dominant ideals of Prussian society as affecting her 
secondary schools. 

2. Consider the dominant social ideals of France as affecting her second- 
ary schools. 

3. Consider the dominant ideals of England as affecting her secondary 
schools. 

4. Compare the articulation of secondary education with other depart- 
ments of education in France, Germany, England, and the United 
States. Make a chart correlating age, grade, and type of school. 

5. Compare the curricula of French, Prussian, and American secondary 
schools with special reference to: (a) rigidity or flexibility; (6) the 
proportionate amounts of time devoted to special subjects or groups of 
subjects; (e) distribution and concentration; (d) amount of time in 
weekly schedule, etc. 

6. Compare the facilities for the secondary education of girls in Europe 
and in America. 

7. Compare the status of private or semi-private secondary schools in 
Germany, France, England, and America. 

8. Consider the relation of ecclesiastical influence to secondary education 
in Germany, France, England, and America. 

9. Compare the training, qualifications, teaching efficiency, social status, 
salary, etc., of secondary school teachers in Germany, France, England, 
and the United States. Russell, Farrington, J. F. Brown. ^ 

10. Compare opportunities for free and universal secondary education in 
Germany, France, England, and America. 

11. Compare the teaching of special subjects of study in German, French, 
and American secondary schools. Russell, Farrington. ^ 

12. Compare the facilities for vocational schools, trade schools, continua- 
tion schools, in Germany, France, England, and the United States. 
How are they related to secondary education? 

13. Make a special study of the school system of Sweden as reorganized 

1 Cf. the references in the following bibliography. 




IN OTHER COUNTRIES 259 

in 1&04. (Cf. Report of the United States Commissioner of Education 
(1913), vol. I, pp, 763/.) 

14. Make a special study of the Folk High Schools of Denmark. (Cf . Bul- 
letins of the Bureau of Education (1913), no. 58; (1914), no. 5. 

15. Make a special study of the movement toward a "national system" 
of education in England with special reference to the laws of 1902, 
1906, et seq. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

I. General: 

Farrington, F. E., "Secondary Education in Europe," chap.iii of 

Monroe, P. (Editor), Principles of Secondary Education. 
Hughes, R. E., The Making of Citizens; A Study in Comparative 

Education. 
Monroe, P. (Editor), A Cyclopedia of Education, articles for each 

foreign country. 
Russell, W. F., Economy in Secondary Education, pp. 4-10, 17-26, 

48-53. 
Sadler, M. E., The Unrest in Secondary Education in Germany and 

Elsewhere: Special Reports on Educational Subjects, Great Britain, 

Board of Education, vol. ix. 
United States Bureau of Education, Reports of the Commissioner of 

Education, especially those since 1910: 1901, vol. i, pp. 939-1136; 

1902, vol. I, pp. 667-1068; 1903, vol. i, pp. 585-667; 1904, vol. i, 

pp. 767-861; 1905, vol. i, pp. 57-110; 1906, vol. i, pp. 1-90; 

1907, vol. I, pp. 73-255; 1908, vol. i, pp. 145-81; 1909, vol. i, 

pp. 323-549; 1910, vol. i, pp. 301-578; 1911, vol. i, pp. 455-589; 

1912, vol. I, pp. 459-615; 1913, vol. i, pp. 679-900; 1914, vol. i. 

pp. 655-788; 1916, vol. i, pp. 513-688. 
11. Germany: 

Bolton, F. E., The Secondary School System of Germany. 

Brown, J. F., The Training of Teachers for Secondary Schools in Ger^ 

many and the United States. 
Great Britain, Board of Education, Special Reports on Educational 

Subjects, vols, i-iii, ix, xx. 
Giildner, H., Die hoheren Lehranstalten fur die weibliche Jugend in 

Preussen. 
Lexis, W., Das Unterrechtswesen im Deutschen Reich, vol. ii. 
Paulsen, F. (translation by Lorentz, T.), German Education : Past 

and Present. 
Prettyman, C. W., "Higher Girls' Schools of Prussia," Teachers 

College Record, May, 1911. 
Russell, J. E., German Higher Schools. 
Simmons, L. V. T., "The Problem of Vocational Education as 



g60 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Carried Out in the German School System," School and Society, 

vol. V, pp. 639-46. 
Lehrpldne und Lehraufgaben fiir die hiiheren Schulen in Preussen 

(1901). 
Statistisches Jdhrhuch der hoheren Schiden. Published annually. 
Centralhlatt fiir die gesamte Unterrichts-Verwcdtung in Preussen. 
Verhandlungen Uber Fragen des hoheren Unterrichts (1910). 
Cf . also Reports of the United States Commissioner of Education, cited 

above. 

III. France: 

Farrington, F. E., French Secondary Schools. 

Girard, D. de, Questions d' enseignement secondaire. 

Great Britain, Board of Education, Special Reports on Educational 
Subjects, vol. XXIV. 

Langlois, C. V., La Question de Venseignement secondaire en France 
et a rstranger. 

Perkins, H. A., "The Educational System of France," Educational 
Review, March, 1911, 

Ribot Commission, Report of, Enquete sur Venseignement secondaire. 

Plan d'Studes et programmes de Venseignement dans les lycees et col- 
leges des jeunes filles (1913). 

Plan d' etudes et programmes de Venseignement secondaire des garqons 
(1913). 

Annuaire Staiistique, vol. xxxii, pp. 26-31, 24 *. 

Cf. also Reports of the United States Commissioner of Education, 
cited above. 

IV. England: 

Balfour, G., Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland. 

Board of Education, Annual Reports. 

Board of Education, Great Britain, Special Reports on Educational 

Subjects, vols, i, xxii. 
Burgstall, S. A., and Douglas, M. A., Public Schools for Girls. 
Kandel, I. L., "Educational Tendencies in England," School and 

Society, vol. v, pp. 631-39. 
Minchin, J. G. C, Our Public Schools : Their Influence on English 

History. 
Montmorency, J. E. G., National Education and National Life. 
Norwood, C, and Hope, A. H., Higher Education of Boys in England. 
Sandiford, P., The Training of Teachers in England and Wales. 
Staunton, H., The Great Schools of England. 
Yoxall, J. H., and Gray, E., The Red Code. An annual publication 

containing the official regulations of the Board of Education. 
Public Schools Yearbook. Published annually. 
Cf. also Reports of the United States Commissioner of Education, 

cited above. 



CHAPTER VII 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN RELATION TO 
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

I. General Considerations 

98. Factors involved in making distinctions. The division 
of the system of education in the United States into the two 
administrative departments of the elementary school and 
the secondary school is more the result of chance than of 
any attempt to build up a properly articulated system of 
schools. The fact that present conditions have not always 
obtained in this coimtry and the fact that systems of educa- 
tion in other countries differ radically from that in America 
suggest that our present distinction between elementary 
and secondary education and the existing relation between 
the two divisions of education may possibly be improved by 
an examination of the factors which should determine the 
character of the system. The first step in such an examina- 
tion is the consideration of distinctions which have been 
made between elementary and secondary education. 

Apart from distinctions based on administrative divisions 
of the system of education, elementary and secondary edu- 
cation have been distinguished in numerous ways: on the 
basis of the chronological age of the children concerned; on 
the basis of stages of physiological or psychological develop- 
ment, with special reference to the phenomena of puberty; 
on the basis of social factors; and on the basis of the charac- 
ter of the studies pursued. 

99. Distinctions based on chronological age. Wlien an 
attempt is made to define elementary education and second- 



262 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ary education in terms of the chronological ages of the 
children taught, it is foimd that such a criterion is a crude 
measure as applied to the actual situation. Theoretically 
in the United States the system of secondary education is 
in part based on the assumption that the children in attend- 
ance at the elementary schools and secondary schools are 
of ages conforming roughly to the standard illustrated in 
the following table. 

Table CIV 

Elementary school High school 

Grade 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 I H III IV 

Age 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 

How far the actual distribution of children is from the 
standard set may be seen from the figures given in Tables 
II, III, and XXV. In most school systems a larger number 
of fourteen- and fifteen-year-old children is found in the ele- 
mentary school than in the secondary school, and in all cases 
the variability of age with reference to grade and of grade 
with reference to age is so great as to make chronological 
age but an approximate criterion of the deUmitation of ele- 
mentary and secondary education. In a general sense only 
is chronological age to be used as a measure of school prog- 
ress. It can never afford a fine of clear demarcation. 

100. Distinctions based on development. The distinction 
between elementary education and secondary education has 
been based on stages in the physiological and psychological 
development of children more frequently and more persist- 
ently than on any other one factor. In general it is a fact 
which may be accepted that the majority of boys and girls 
in the elementary school have not yet reached the stage of 
adolescence and that the majority of boys and girls in the 
high school have reached that stage. It is nevertheless true 
that adolescent boys and girls are found in the elementary 
schools in practically as large numbers as in the high schools 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 263 

of most school systems. It is fmlher true that a significant 
proportion of boys and girls in the early grades of the sec- 
ondary school have not yet reached the stage of adolescence. 
It must be recognized that in American schools pupils in 
the later grades of the secondary school are predominantly 
adolescent or pubescent and that pupils in the earlier grades 
of the elementary school are predominantly immature. In 
the later grades of the elementary school, however, and the 
earlier grades of the high school (especially in the first year) 
non-adolescent pupils and adolescent pupils are intermingled 
to such an extent that any clear distinction between ele- 
mentary education and secondary education is impossible 
at the very point where distinction is important. In gen- 
eral (but only in general) we may say that pupils in grades 
one to five or six of the elementary school form a group 
roughly homogeneous with respect to the phenomena of 
adolescence (being predominantly immature), that pupils 
in grades seven and eight of the elementary school and in 
the first grade of the high school form a group widely vari- 
able, and that pupils in the last three grades of the high 
school form a group roughly homogeneous with respect to 
adolescence (being predominantly mature). The bearing 
of theories of periodic or concomitant development and of 
saltatory or gradual development on this problem has al- 
ready been discussed. 

Somewhat allied to the distinction based on the difference 
between immature (non-pubescent) pupils and maturing or 
mature (pubescent and postpubescent) pupils is that sug- 
gested in the following quotation: 

There is a stage in mental development, above the empirical 
stage and below the philosophical, which we may call the "scien- 
tific." The grade of education corresponding to this intermediate 
stage may, quite naturally, be called secondary, that below it being 
called primary, and that above it, higher. The primary or ele- 



264 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

mentary division deals mainly with things in their unessential 
relationships, their resemblances and differences, their collocation 
in space, and their orderly arrangement in temporal series. It 
rises, to be sure, to general ideas, but hardly arrives at logical 
definition of its ideas. The secondary division deals with ideas 
more clearly defined; and it comes to an understanding of things 
as organized into coherent systems through the operation of such 
principles as those of mechanical causation and human imitation. 
These principles have already become familiar, to be sure, in the 
earlier stage, but not in their larger significance,^ 

As indicating a general truth concerning the intellectual 
processes of the immature and the mature pupil such a sug- 
gestion may be accepted. The statements cannot, however, 
be taken as indicating any clear distiuction between ele- 
mentary education and secondary education as far as the 
transition point betw^een the two is concerned. The ob- 
vious relation of the definitions to theories of serial or 
periodic and saltatory development will not escape the 
reader. 

loi. Distinctions based on social factors. Distinctions 
between lower and higher education based on social factors 
are more common and much more important in European 
states than in America. It has already been pointed out 
that lower and higher education in Germany and France are 
separated by lines of social and economic cleavage and have 
but little articulation. It has also been pointed out that the 
terms elementary education and secondary education, ele- 
mentary schools and secondary schools, should be inter- 
preted with great caution when any comparison is attempted 
between foreign and American schools. 

Social distinctions between elementary education and 
secondary education have not been entirely wanting, how- 
ever, in America. Their basis is found in the conception that 

* Brown, E. E., The Making of Our Middle Schools, p. 3. Quoted with 
the permission of the publishers, Longmans, Green, & Co. 



RELATION TO ELEIVIENTARY EDUCATION 265 

elementary education is appropriate for all children while 
secondary education (of necessity in practice if not of choice 
or theory) is limited to a relatively small proportion of chil- 
dren. Such a conception is more or less manifest in com- 
pulsory education laws and at times has been to some extent 
effective in determining educational theory and practice. 
It is, for instance, involved in the following statement by 
Hadley:! 

Secondary education, under the definition which I would sug- 
gest, includes all those studies which are regarded by the public as 
too far advanced to be a part of the compulsory education which 
it strives to furnish to aU citizens, and which are at the same time 
not sufficiently specialized in their purpose to be considered part 
of the technical preparation of different groups of citizens for their 
several callings in life. It is distinguished on the one hand from 
primary education by being less universal. It is distinguished on 
the other hand from technical education in its object; in fitting 
the student to be a better man rather than a more expert 
producer. Speaking roughly, primary education aims to secure the 
necessary level of general intelligence; technical education aims to 
secure the necessary level of professional intelligence; secondary 
education aims at something in excess of the necessary minima. 

While such a distinction between the three divisions of 
the system of education may by some be considered valid 
"speaking roughly," it is obvious that no clear line of de- 
marcation can be determined by the criteria suggested, the 
point (grade) at which the "level of general intelligence" 
ends and " something in excess of the necessary minima" be- 
gins being still undetermined. 

102. Distinctions based on studies. As late as 1912 in 
schedules sent out by the Federal Bureau of Education a 
secondaay-school student was defined as follows: ^ 

1 Hadley, A. T., "The Meaning and Purpose of Secondary Education,** 
School Review, vol. x, p. 732. 

2 Bureau of Education Bulletin (1912), no. 22, p. 5. 



266 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Secondary student (or high-school student) should be taken 
as meaning a student who has completed an elementary-school 
course of at least seven years in length (ordinarily eight years) or 
its equivalent, and has pursued within the past year at least two 
recognized high-school studies, e.g., Latin, French, German, 
algebra, geometry, physical geography, physics, general history. 

Any such definition of secondary education is, of course, 
totally arbitrary and as a matter of fact is already out of 
harmony with present-day theory and practice. The his- 
tory of education shows clearly that no criterion could be 
more untrustworthy than one dependent for its meaning on 
specific subjects of study. This is particularly true since the 
development of vocational secondary education. 

A distinction offering a nearer approach to criteria of ele- 
mentary and secondary education is that which defines the 
work of the elementary school as primarily involving the 
training of children in the fundamental tools of education 
such as that now forming the bulk of the work of our ele- 
mentary schools. That training in the fundamental tools of 
education and of life is a primary function of elementary 
education must be recognized. Few would, however, admit 
that such training is the sole function of the elemen- 
tary school. Few likewise would be willing to admit that 
even all the fundamental tools can adequately be ac- 
quired in the elementary school. Here language offers a 
good example. The mechanics of reading, writing, spelling, 
and other forms of language work can doubtless be acquired 
in a relatively short time. Surely, however, the development 
of ability to employ the language tool is not completed by- 
such attainments. The proper relation of reading, writing, 
spelling, and the like to the development of ability to use 
language as an instrument for thinking and for the expres- 
sion of thought is not established within the period of ele- 
mentary education as now constituted. Only on the suppo- 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 267 

sition that we can establish definitely the point at which 
studies cease to be "fundamental tools" and become some- 
thing else could w^e distinguish between elementary educa- 
tion and secondary education on such a basis. 

103. The fallacy of sharp distinctions. When elementary 
education as a whole is compared with secondary education 
as a whoUy all the points of distinction considered in the 
preceding sections are vahd. Pupils in the secondary school 
are of an average older age than those in the elementary 
school. Likewise they are predominantly pubescent or post- 
pubescent while pupils in the elementary school are pre- 
dominantly immature. Pupils in the secondary school are 
a more select group socially and economically than those in 
the elementary school. Studies in the secondary school are 
different in kind and require higher degrees of mental abil- 
ities than those in the elementary school. However, when 
such general distinctions are made the basis of lines of sharp 
demarcation between the two divisions of education, the 
dangers of the "group fallacy" become very great. Haviag 
once classified pupils by total groups in the elementary or 
secondary school we tend to become the victims of our own 
classifications, assuming that what is true of the group as a 
whole is true of the various sub-groups or individuals of that 
group. Hence we tend to think of pupils in the last grade of 
the elementary school and pupils in the first grade of the 
secondary school as manifesting the same differences as 
those found between elementary-school pupils as a whole 
and secondary-school pupils as a whole. Such procedure 
is fallacious in the extreme. 

The primary criterion of the relation between the various 
parts of the school system is found in the character of the 
development of boys and girls. This factor was considered 
at some length in Chapters I and 11. There the conclusion 
was reached that no abrupt change in education is justified 



268 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

at any point in tlie school system, but that the development 
of the individual being essentially a gradual, continuous, 
and unitary process, demands a gradually changing, con- 
tinuous, and unitary process of education. Hence on this 
basis the school system should be without points of abrupt 
transition and the change from what is characteristically 
elementary to what is characteristically secondary education 
must be gradual. 

While the character of the development of children de- 
mands that the transition from elementary education to 
secondary education be gradual and continuous, it must be 
recognized that the exigencies of school organization and 
administration necessitate changes at some point or points 
which must to some extent interfere with the transition of 
pupils from division to division of the school system. Some- 
where in the course of the pupil's progress he must be trans- 
ferred to a different building. Somewhere the change must 
be made from the single common course typical of elemen- 
tary education to the field of differentiated courses of the 
secondary school, from the single-teacher-per-group system 
to the departmental system, from the administrative regime 
of the elementary school to that of the secondary school. 
Under our present organization the majority of those 
changes are made abruptly and at the same point. This is 
neither necessary nor desirable. It should be an aim of 
organization and administration to see to it that the neces- 
sary changes be made in such a way that the transition of 
the pupil shall be gradual and continuous as far as may be 
possible. 

The point should be emphasized that, however clearly 
we may distinguish between elementary education as a 
whole and secondary education as a whole, any attempt 
to draw a sharp dividing line between the two is contrary 
to the dictates of sound pedagogy. There is no clear line 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 269 

of demarcation between elementary and secondary educa- 
tion. The former merges into the latter by imperceptible 
degrees. 



II, Historical and Comparative Considerations 

104. Historical development. The sequential relation of 
elementary and secondary education (wherein secondary ed- 
ucation is conceived as a continuation of training following 
and dependent on elementary education) represents a rela- 
tively recent stage of development and one found in com- 
plete form only in America and in countries more or less 
affected by American practice. When we examine the ear- 
lier forms of education in Europe (to go back no farther than 
the Renaissance and Reformation periods), we find existing 
two different types of schools, the so-called secondary school 
(gymnasium, Latin grammar school, etc.) and schools of a 
lower type in which were taught only the rudiments of read- 
ing and writing. Schools of the former type were designed*' 
for the education of the higher classes. Schools of the lower ly 
type afforded a rudimentary education (it can scarcely be 
called an elementary education) for a few of the less fortu- 
nate class. Between these two types of schools there existedl I 
no recognized articulation, as there existed Uttle opportunity 
for change from one class of society to the other. It is quite 
misleading in many respects to differentiate these schools as 
elementary and secondary schools. Rather we should say 
that there existed during the Renaissance and Reformation 
periods one rather complete system of schools designed for 
the higher classes and another type of school (it can scarcely 
be called system) for some of the lower classes. This is all 
the more true since the higher type of school either provided 
its own "elementary education" or depended on home or 
tutorial training for reading and wTiting instruction. 



^70 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Out of those two types of schools have developed the mod- 
ern "elementary" and "secondary" schools of Em-ope which 
only in the most recent times have been brought into very 
incomplete articulation and which still manifest clearly the 
lines of social distinction inherited from earlier days. 

105. The development of articulation in America. The 
American system of articulated elementary and secondary 
education stands in marked contrast with the more or less 
parallel systems of Germany, France, and other European 
countries, where social and economic lines in large part de- 
termine the differentiation. It must not be supposed, how- 
ever, that the American system of articulated schools origi- 
nated in anything like its present form. The first secondary 
schools in this coimtry, the colonial Latin grammar schools, 
were in no definite way articulated with the "reading and 
writing" schools, "dame schools," etc., which constituted 
the lower schools of the period, but were complete in them- 
selves, being connected only with the college for which they 
were designed to prepare. The earliest laws did, indeed, 
provide both for elementary schools and for secondary 
schools, but those provisions included no plan or suggestion 
for articulation between them. It was not until the rise of the 
high school in the second quarter of the nineteenth century 
that there developed any sort of organized articulation 
between the two departments, though it should be noted 
that various comprehensive schemes for state systems of 
education which provided for a well-articulated system of 
elementary and secondary schools had been proposed and 
in part adopted before that time. 

The Latin grammar school was confessedly designed solely 
to prepare boys for college and hence in part reflected the 
mark of social distinction found in European secondary 
schools of the period. Such boys did not attend the "com- 
mon schools." It was only with the establishment of the 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 271 

high school, which aimed to provide secondary education 
for boys and girls who did not intend to go to college, that 
boys and girls who had gone to the common schools were pro- 
vided with a means of secondary education. The need for 
articulation then became important. Thus the Boston 
English Classical (High) School was established "with the 
design of furnishing young men of the city who are not in- 
tended for a collegiate course of study and who have enjoyed 
the usual advantages of the other public schools with the means 
of completing a good English education/* 

The first high-school law in the country (Massachusetts, 
1827) made no provision for the articulation between the 
secondary school and the elementary school but rather inter- 
fered with any close articulation by providing for a certain 
amount of elementary education in the high school proper. 
This led to a considerable amount of confusion which per- 
sisted for several years. However, the law did allow the local 
school committees to determine the regulations regarding 
the qualifications for admission to the high school and in the 
larger and better school systems there soon developed cer- 
tain standards for admission to the high school which regu- 
larly involved satisfactory completion of the elementary 
school studies. This is specifically so stated in the report of 
the school committee of Worcester (Massachusetts) as early 
as 1844, but the standard had in fact been established rather 
generally in practice before that. The transfer was regu- 
larly made on the basis of examinations which were made 
quite formal, even to the extent of printing the examina- 
tion questions. Nevertheless the greatest confusion between 
elementary and secondary schools was found until well into 
the last haK of the nineteenth century, a condition which 
may be appreciated from the fact that, while there were 
certainly not more than eighteen high schools in Massachu- 
setts in 1840, out of 304 towns reporting at that date, 104 



272 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

claimed to offer algebra in their schools, 181 claimed to offer 
natural philosophy (physics), 116 mental science, 41 chem- 
istry, and various other subjects belon^ng to the secondary 
school curriculum — some of them required by law as high- 
school subjects. 

In this connection we must not fail to note the lack of 
well-graded elementary schools in this country until well on 
into the second half of the nineteenth century. In many 
States the ** district system," whereby a large number of 
small and to some degree independent political districts, 
with corresponding education imits (school districts), mili- 
tated strongly against the development of well-graded 
schools. This undoubtedly had its influence in delaying the 
articulation of elementary and secondary schools in the 
United States, and particularly in New England. 

From these facts it is clear that the present form of articu- 
lation between elementary and secondary schools in the 
United States is of relatively recent development and repre- 
sents the result of attempts to bring into relation two insti- 
tutions, which had grown up more or less independently. 
The present situation is the result of a gradual growth rather 
than a system logically developed in theory and applied 
directly through legislative or administrative action, the 
result of an evolution, not the result of a logically con- 
structed organization. 

io6. Practice in foreign countries. An examination of 
systems of education in foreign countries discloses a number 
of facts of interest in connection with the relation between 
elementary and secondary education. Among those facts 
may be mentioned the following. 

(1) In many foreign coimtries, e.g., Germany and France, 
the division of schools is based on the groupings of pupils 
(social and economic) rather than on the basis of school 
progress, the "higher schools" including both elementary 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 273 



and secondary education in the American sense of those 
terms. 

(2) In such countries there is no definite point at ^hich 
one can say elementary education ends and secondary edu- 
cation begins. In whatever school a boy or girl enrolls he 
proceeds without abrupt transition from grade to grade or 

Age In Years 6 7 8 9 10 11 IS Id 14 15 16 17 18 19 

.United States 1 Elenentary School jSecondary School 



fiermpnf 



Preparatory • 


Hohere 


Hadchenschule 


!_I 


Volksschule 


• Fortblldungs- 


■schule,etc* 


Vorsohule • 


Hohere 


Knabenschule 





Trance 



fieole Prinaire 



IvQge^- or. Coll ege (&irls9 ^ J 



:..Z'.'.TA 



repar«t<ir>':C<«>«twtdr3 ; Lyc^e or College (Boys) | 



Ciisland 



[ 



Elementary School ; Higher Elementary ,etc« 

: Secondary School 



Denmark 



SvedciL 



Italy 



j Folk 



esXole 



"}* * C'ont inuat ion* ScliooV,e{c T 



I Me Hem Skole"' PGymnasTun 



i Middle School j 
I Infant ; Elementary \ Contimation School, etc» 

I Realskolor f 

\ Gymnasiiia 



1 Elementary School | 



I Ginnasio 



I |.iceo I 



Japan 



I Priroary School 



Hipher Prinaryl' 
Middle School [HiRh School \ 



Scotland [infant ; Primar y : Supplementary 

* '" I Interaediate |Seoondary| 



.toeece 



C 



Elementary 



i Hfellenio | Oynaiasium j 



FiGUBE U. Illustrating the Relation of Various Schools m 
Different Foreign Countries 



274 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

from division to division. Nothing could be more misleading 
than the statement commonly made that the German boy 
begins his secondary education at the age of nine when he 
enters the "higher school, " or that the French boy begins his 
secondary education at the age of ten when he enters the 
lyc6e or college. In both cases elementary education merges 
into secondary education (in the American sense of both 
terms) so gradually that it is quite impossible to dissociate 
the two. This continuity and gradualness of educational 
progress is in fact one of the outstanding characteristics of 
German and French education. 

(3) Subjects which are confined to secondary-school 
study in America are begun at a much earlier stage in most 
foreign countries, e.g., in the "higher schools" of Germany 
and in the French lycee, 

(4) Some amount of differentiated education is provided 
earlier in Germany and France than in America — in Ger- 
many at the age of nine and in France at the age of ten. 

Some of these facts will appear more clearly from the 
diagram illustrating the relation of various schools in differ- 
ent countries. (Figure U.) 

III. The Present Status of the Abticulation be- 
tween Elementary and Secondary Education in 
THE United States 

107. The eight-four-system. In discussing the present 
status of articulation between elementary and secondary 
education in this country the normal situation will be con- 
sidered as that in which a four-year high-school course 
is sequentially related to an eight-year elementary-school 
course. In some localities, especially in New England, the 
elementary-school course comprises nine grades, but in such 
cases younger children enter the first grade of the school. 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 275 

which is to be considered in some respects as taking the 
place of a kindergarten grade, and the relation of the ele- 
mentary School to the high school is not seriously affected. 
High schools with com*ses shorter than four grades are nu- 
merous, constituting approximately one third of all high 
schools in the country and enrolhng about one tenth of the 
total number of high-school pupils. With the exception of 
high schools established in recent years in the form of junior- 
senior high schools, or as six-year high schools (to be consid- 
ered separately below), variations from the four-grade high 
school are due to their situation in sparsely populated dis- 
tricts and are mainly of the partial high-school type, con- 
sidered as incomplete and preparing pupils for the comple- 
tion of their courses in other nearby high schools. Their 
number is constantly decreasing as consolidation improves, 
and they involve no important separate problem affecting 
the matter of articulation. 

1 08. The age of pupils transferred. Theoretically pupils 
in the last grade of the elementary school are about thirteen 
or fourteen years of age and those of the first grade of the 
high school are about fourteen or fifteen years of age. It has 
already been pointed out that there is a great amount of 
overlapping between grades in the chronological ages of 
pupils in any school system. In the majority of school sys- 
tems pupils twelve, thirteen, or fourteen years of age will 
be foimd scattered all the way from the first grade of the 
elementary school well into the high school and pupils fif- 
teen, sixteen, even seventeen years of age will be found in 
almost every grade from the lowest to the highest. Thus it 
appears from the data presented in Table III that in the 
cities considered 45.2 per cent of all thirteen-year-old pupils 
were found located below the seventh grade, 46.2 per cent 
of all fourteen-year-old pupils below the eighth grade, 45.1 
per cent of all fifteen-year-old pupils below the first grade 



276 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of the high school. In many school systems there are more 
fifteen-year-old pupils in the elementary school than in the 
high school. 

The large number of over-age pupils found in the ele- 
mentary school raises some serious questions concerning 
methods of promotion in the later grades of that school. 
The problem will be considered at greater length in later sec- 
tions deahng with the junior high school. It may be sug- 
gested here, however, that the practice hitherto obtaining 
of retaining pupils chronologically, physiologically, and 
socially mature, in the lower grades of the school system and 
making the complete accomphshment of prescribed amounts 
of elementary-school work the sole criterion for the admis- 
sion of pupils to other forms of education is a practice harm- 
ful both to the school and to the pupils. Pupils who are 
more mature and who can secure greater benefit through 
other forms of education than those usually provided in the 
elementary school as at present organized must, wherever 
possible, be provided the opportunity to engage in such 
education as they can do rather than be required over and over 
to engage in forms of education for which they have already 
manifested their inability. Suggested means for accom- 
plishing this reform will be considered in later sections. 

109. The pedagogical age of pupils transferred. To 
describe the stage of pedagogical development of pupils 
making the transition from the elementary school to the 
secondary school is a practical impossibility. To state that 
the pupils have progressed through eight grades of the ele- 
mentary school having performed the duties required by the 
course of study and the administration with a certain degree 
of success is to afford but little evidence of the ability and 
achievement of such pupils. We know that the pupils have 
met the minimum requirements of the elementary school 
in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, nature 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 277 

study, drawing, etc. We know that they have been subjected 
to certain forms of social education and to certain forms of 
discipUne. We know that each of those factors has had its 
measure of effect in determining the nature of the children 
entering the secondary school. Measures of the definite 
status of the mental abihty, of interests and attitudes, even 
of achievement, are almost completely lacking. Until such 
measures are supplied we must rest content in describing the 
previous training of pupils entering the secondary school in 
general terms indicating that they have received such train- 
ing as is afforded by eight years of education m the elemen- 
tary schools, under the conditions obtaining there, and have 
acquired a certain amount of facility in the employment of 
such tools of education as are involved in language work, 
numerical calculation, a certain number of facts of geog- 
raphy, nature study, history, etc., and certain attitudes 
toward the work of the school and toward society. That 
the pupils coming to the secondary school from the elemen- 
tary school should represent even a fairly homogeneous 
group in achievement is not to be expected. Still less is it to 
be expected that the group will be homogeneous in capac- 
ity and ability. The same amount of "exposure" to the ed- 
ucational forces of the elementary school does not decrease 
original differences in capacity nor in achievement: rather 
it tends to increase such original differences, and one may 
confidently expect to find among pupils entering the second- 
ary school after essentially the same amount and form of 
training in the latter, differences fully as great as those 
exemplified in Tables XXIII and XXIV. 

no. Evidences of defects in articulation. For a number 
of years it has been recognized that defects exist in the artic- 
ulation between elementary schools and secondary schools 
in the United States. Transition from one institution to 
another or from one division of the same institution to 



278 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

another must always involve the necessity for a certain 
degree of readjustment to changed conditions. The more 
different the two institutions or divisions the greater is the 
degree of readjustment necessary. Important differences 
are found between the elementary-school situation and the 
high-school situation, and the pupil called upon to make 
the change from one division to the other is required to 
make important and difficult readjustments. Some of those 
readjustments necessary deserve attention. 

(1) The transition from the elemer^tary school to the high 
school ordinarily involves the breaking up of established 
social groups among pupils who have been associated for 
some years and the establishment of new social groups. 
The resulting readjustments are as difficult in many cases 
as those which face the college freshman or the boy whose 
family moves to a strange town or district. 

(2) The transition from the elementary school to the high 
school ordinarily means a transfer from one institution to 
another quite different, to one in which almost every phase 
of the organization and administration is radically different 
to those obtaining in the institution to which he has become 
accustomed. The resulting readjustments necessary are by 
no means easily made and sometimes the necessity for such 
readjustments is not recognized until extensive damage has 
been done to the boy or girl. 

(3) The pupil on passing from the elementary school to 
the high school ordinarily passes from a situation in which 
practically all his study in any one grade (or even several 
grades) has been under the direction and guidance of a single 
teacher who has learned to know him in all his activities — 
to know the whole child — to a situation in which his activ- 
ities are divided in such a way as to involve a number of 
different individuals as teachers and guides, no one of whom 
knows the pupil as a whole and can coordinate his various 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 279 

activities connected with the school work. Such an abrupt 
transition from one situation to a far different one involves 
an extremely difficult readjustment on the part of the pupil. 
This situation, however, is rapidly being remedied in part 
by extending some forms of departmental teaching down 
into the eighth, seventh, or even the sixth grade of the ele- 
mentary school, and, when such departmental work is 
gradually introduced and its amount increased grade by 
grade, the transition from the one school to the other per- 
mits a gradual readjustment. In 1913 the United States 
Bureau of Education sent out a questionnaire to superin- 
tendents in cities of 5000 population or over, of which there 
were 1245 enumerated in the census of 1910. Of 813 replies 
received, 461 reported departmental teaching in the elemen- 
tary school in some form in the later grades. The complete 
data summarized were as indicated in the following table. 

Table CV * 

Yea No No data 

Is departmental teaching in operation? 461 352 

Is the percentage of failures less? 240 78 143 

Do a larger percentage enter the high school? 250 61 150 

Are pupils better able to do high-school work? 302 34 125 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1913), vol. i, pp. 139-40. 

(4) Transfer from the elementary school to the secondary 
school commonly means a noticeable change in the char- 
acter of studies. Those of the last grades of the elementary 
school are almost exclusively subjects which have been 
studied for many years and are familiar to the pupil in their 
general associations because they are but different phases 
of such subjects as arithmetic, language, geography, and 
the like. On entrance to the high school the pupil is con- 
fronted by a group of studies nearly all of which are un- 
familiar in character or attacked from a viewpoint and by 
methods which are unfamiHar. Obviously new subjects 



280 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of study must be encountered by the pupil in his progress 
through the school. The difficulty lies not in the necessary 
introduction of new studies but in the fact that they are 
encountered en hloc in the first grade of the high school. 
The necessity for abrupt adjustment to this group of new 
subjects is a severe strain on the pupil. This is further em- 
phasized by the fact that the increased responsibility for 
undirected study and the removal of conditions favoring 
a coordination of studies and habits of study make a sudden 
demand for self direction for which previous provision has 
not been made. Finally, when to these factors is added a 
third — the responsibility for choice and election of studies 
and curricula — the difficulties of adjustment and orienta- 
tion are tremendously enhanced. 

* (5) Teachers in the elementary school regularly have 
received their training in the normal school. Teachers in the 
high school regularly have received their training — such 
as it is — in the college. The former have received a pro- 
fessional training which has emphasized method and the 
pupil. The latter have received no professional training 
in most cases and in their higher education have tended 
to become specialists in subject matter. In the elementary 
schools only 17.6 per cent of the teachers are men and it 
is not by any means an exceptional case for the boy or girl 
to reach the high school without ever having come into 
contact with a man as his teacher. In the high school on 
the average 43.6 per cent of the teachers are men and 
sooner or later the high-school pupil is to have nearly one 
half of his work and training under men teachers. Ordi- 
narily the change is not so great as that imphed by the fig- 
ures since the majority of men teachers in the elementary 
schools are found as teachers in the later grades of those 
schools. The change is not without importance, however, 
for pupils of either sex. 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 281 

(6) As a result of the factors mentioned in the two para- 
graphs preceding important differences are found in the 
methods of teaching employed in the elementary and sec- 
ondary schools. The abrupt changes in the methods of 
teaching employed constitute one more factor demanding 
readjustment on the part of the pupil entering the high 
school for the first time. 

(7) Closely related to this factor is the fact that methods 
of discipline and methods of treating pupils differ quite 
widely in the elementary school and the secondary school. 
As children matiue forms of discipline and of treatment 
must and should change. No justification can be found, 
however, for the sudden and abrupt change within four 
months from the matemalism of the elementary school to 
individualism of the secondary school. When conditions 
call for such a change the pupil is bewildered by the great 
readjustment necessary. 

(8) Finally we may note that the whole atmosphere in 
the high school differs from that of the elementary school. 
The thousand and one forms of readjustment demanded of 
the boy or girl entering the high school for the first time 
postulate a capacity for adaptation not always found. 

In general we may draw one important conclusion from 
all these forms of readjustment involved — that the present 
form of articulation between elementary and secondary 
education violates the most important laws of unity and 
continuity demanded by the unitary, continuous, and 
gradual development of children. It is to be noted that 
every one of the changes mentioned is necessary. The 
danger lies in the fact that all those changes come at the 
same time and are sudden and abrupt, so that the difficul- 
ties of adjustment are cumulative. 

III. Retardation and elimination as evidence. WTiile 
the phenomena of retardation and elimination are complex 



g82 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and difficult of interpretation, they may afford some evi- 
dence of the difficult readjustments which face the pupils 
when they pass from the elementary school to the secondary 
school. Figures for retardation indicate a large proportion- 
ate amoimt of non-promotion in the first year of the high 
school and in the majority of high schools it is recognized 
that the first grade is the critical point in the school. Failure 
there is not only greatest but also more likely to result in 
discouragement and withdrawal from school. 

In Chapter IV it was pointed out that the greatest pro- 
portionate amount of elimination is found in the first grade 
of the high school or between the first and second high-school 
grades. The interpretation of that fact is not altogether 
clear, but we are at least safe in saying that, so far as the 
evidence goes, it would corroborate the belief that the 
difficulties of adjustment facing the pupil on entrance to 
the high school result in failure, discouragement, and with- 
drawal. 

In this connection it may be noted that malarticulation 
between the elementary and secondary schools is evidenced 
not only by the fact that pupils entering the high school fail 
and leave in large numbers, but also by the fact that large 
numbers of pupils leave school at the close of the elementary 
period. In other words the high school not only fails to re- 
tain pupils entering, but it also fails to attract many pupils 
who should enter. 

112. Instruction in later elementary-school grades. 
Directly or indirectly the character of the instruction pro- 
vided in the later grades of the elementary school seriously 
affects the articulation between that school and the second- 
ary school. Some of the factors here involved have already 
been considered. It remains to point out that the unsatisfac- 
tory education provided in the seventh and eighth grades 
tends both to eliminate pupils in those grades and to dis- 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 283 

courage them from proceeding into the secondary school. 
In the following table are presented figm-es indicating the 
average number of minutes per week devoted to various ele- 
mentary-school studies in the seventh and eighth grades 
of about fifty typical cities in the country. 

Table CVI* 

Studies Grade 7 Grade 8 

Reading 98 97 

Language 134 142 

SpeUing 52 51 

Penmanship 39 37 

Arithmetic 140 142 

Geography 98 76 

History 91 117 

Science 45 57 

Drawing 50 49 

Music 45 44 

Manual training 72 74 

Physical training 38 39 

Opening exercises 31 31 

Recess 66 66 

Miscellaneous 78 87 

• On this whole question see the Fourteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study 
of Education, Part. I. Table from p. 26. See also Sixteenth Yearbook, Part I. 

Reading, language, spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, 
geography engage pupils during more than sixty per cent 
of their recitation time in the seventh and eighth grades. 
In many cases all studies of the elementary school are of a 
highly formal character, containing much obsolete and use- 
less material, and including a great amoimt of review work.^ 
Few elementary schools provide any opportunity for pupils 
to vary their study in any appreciable degree by election of 
subjects. Shorn of useless material and with a reduction of 
reviews the elementary-school course in the seventh and 
eighth grades could better meet the needs of education and 
of articulation. 

^ On the review work of those grades see Hill, C. M., Missouri State 
Normal School Bulletin (1915), no. 3. 



284 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

IV. Reforms in the Articitlation of Elementary and 
Secondary Education 

113. Further objections to present conditions. In the 
preceding section were pointed out evidences of a malad- 
justment of elementary and secondary education in this 
country because of the difficulties involved in the transition 
from the former to the latter. That "gap" between the 
two divisions is not, however, the sole objection which has 
been raised against the present form of articulation between 
the two schools. More fundamental objections are to be 
found. They may be grouped under three general heads: 
(a) psychological considerations, with special reference to the 
factors of development with maturity and the distribution of 
individual differences among pupils; (6) social and economic 
considerations, with special reference to the factors of 
economy of time and money in education, prevocational 
education and the differentiated needs of society, ehmination 
and retardation; (c) administrative considerations. Need- 
less to say, these factors are all closely interrelated. How- 
ever, for purposes of analysis they may be considered 
separately in the following sections. 

114. Psychological considerations. Two important psy- 
chological factors affect the problem of articulation between 
elementary and secondary education, one involving the 
adjustment of the different divisions of the educational 
system to the development of children in mental traits, the 
other involving recognition of the existence and distribution 
of individual differences among pupils and the adaptation 
thereto of the education afforded. 

(1) The factor of development with maturity: For some time 
the theory has obtained in American education that a rather 
sudden and abrupt change from elementary to secondary 
education is justified on the assumption that the develop- 



RELATION TO ELE^IENTARY EDUCATION 285 

ment of children with maturity Is saltatory and that at 
adolescence particularly a marked change takes place in the 
boy or girl which justified a correspondingly marked diff- 
erentiation between elementary and secondary education. 
From the material presented in Chapter II it would appear: 
(a) that the theory of gradual development seems more cor- 
rect than the theory of saltatory development; and (6) that, 
even on the assumption of a theory of saltatory develop- 
ment for individuals, among groups of pupils variability is 
so great and the influence of other factors so strong that 
points of abrupt transition between any two successive 
divisions of the system of education are quite unjustifiable. 
Essential continuity and gradual change should mark the 
articulation between elementary and secondary education 
whether a theory of saltatory development or a theory of 
gradual development is assumed. 

In this connection attention may be recalled to the facts 
disclosed by fig*ures in Tables XI to XVIII. Those figures 
indicate that as our school system is at present organized 
pupils in grades 1-6 are predominantly immature physio- 
logically, in grades II-IV (high school) pupils are predom- 
inantly mature physiologically, and that the stage from 
the seventh grade of the elementary school to the first grade 
of the high school, pupils are in a markedly transitional 
period as far as the factor of pubescence is concerned. At 
the age of twelve less than five per cent of the pupils are 
post-pubescent, and the age of sixteen more than four fifths 
are post-pubescent. Ages thirteen to fifteen mark the 
transitional period. 

(2) The factor of individual differences : While the factor 
of individual differences is involved in all departments and 
at all stages in education, it fails to receive recognition in 
important respects until the stage of secondary education 
begins. In the majority of school systems under existing 



286 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

conditions any sort of adaptation of courses, studies, and 
methods of teaching to the differentiated capacities, inter- 
ests, and needs of boys and girls is deferred to the beginning 
of the high school where pupils are on the average approx- 
imately fourteen or fifteen years of age. The psychology 
of individual differences indicates that this date is too late 
and that provision should be made earlier in the school 
system for the adaptation of the work of the schools to the 
differentiated capacities, interests, and needs of pupils as 
well as to the differentiated needs of society. There can be 
little doubt that failure to meet this demand in the past has 
led to ineffective work on the part of the school, has ham- 
pered the administration of the school system, and has con- 
tributed greatly to the forces of retardation and elimination. 

115. Social and economic principles involved. Closely 
related to the factors considered in the preceding section, 
and certainly no less important, are those which arise out of 
certain social and economic considerations. 

(1) Economy of time in education : Within the past half- 
century or less the ages at which the successive stages of 
education are begun and are completed have gradually been 
extended upward until serious questions have arisen con- 
cerning the economy of time in our educational system. 
When we consider the system of education as a whole, we 
find that those who enter professional careers do so at a rela- 
tively late age when compared with their fellows in other 
countries. Likewise, when we consider the attainments of 
graduates of our secondary schools and colleges we find that 
they are not equal to the attainments of students in other 
countries with respect to the amount of time devoted to 
their education. Recognizing those facts many American 
educators have turned their attention to the problem of 
economy of time in our schools, their attention focusing on 
the length of the elementary-school course (with special 



RELATION TO ELEJVIENTARY EDUCATION 287 

reference to the last two grades of that school), the length 
of the secondary-school course, and the form of articulation 
between the two. Among the many suggested changes that 
recommended by the Committee of the National Council 
of Education on "Economy of Time in Education'* perhaps 
best illustrates the problem. T'hat committee has presented 
a provisional time schedule in which the articulation 
between the various divisions of the system of education 
would be: elementary education, 6-12 years; secondary 
education (two divisions — four years and two years), 12- 
18; college, 18-20 or 16-20 ; university (graduate and pro- 
fessional schools), 20-24.1 It is to be noted that the most 
important reform herein suggested is one involving the last 
two grades of the elementary school which have long been 
recognized as the part of the school system most open to 
criticism on the ground of the questionable character of the 
work done there. 

(2) The factors of elimination and retardation : If the 
problem of economy of time in education and the resulting 
problems affecting the general spread of educational prod- 
ucts were confined to those completing the high-school course 
or higher com*ses, its importance, while great, would not 
assume the proportions which it otherwise assumes. How- 
ever, figures previously presented in Tables LV to LVII 
indicate that while approximately ninety per cent of the 
children in the country remain in school up to the age of 
twelve or thirteen and approximately four fifths remain in 
school up to the age of fourteen, only a little over two thirds 
remain in school up to the age of fifteen, about one haK up 
to the age of sixteen, only a little over one third up to the 
age of seventeen, and less than one quarter up to the age 
of eighteen. With respect to the grade reached more than 
three quarters of the pupils who enter reach the sixth grade 
1 Bureau of Education Bulletin (1913), no. 38, p. 10. 



288 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and about one haK complete the work of the elementary- 
school. About one third only, however, enter the first grade 
of the high school, and about one eighth or one ninth com- 
plete the high-school course. The resulting social and eco- 
nomic loss (positive or negative) is tremendous. For the 
boy or girl who leaves school at the close of the sixth grade 
little has been provided along the line of education specially 
adapted to meet his special needs in life. For those who 
remain through the seventh and eighth grades the same is 
true though (theoretically at least) a further general educa- 
tion has been provided. For those who fail to reach the high 
school (two thirds of those entering the school) any form 
of differentiated education adapted to meet their special 
needs, or in fact to discover their special needs, is the excep- 
tion rather than the rule in our public schools. This is a 
situation to be accepted as a fact and the factors of elimi- 
nation and retardation must be considered as legitimate 
grounds for so modifying our educational system as. to pro- 
vide a more adequate training for the large number of chil- 
dren who leave school early. One way of accomplishing thi 
is to provide for more appropriate forms of education in 
what are now the seventh and eighth grades, with the expec - 
tation that thereby those at present eliminated in those 
grades may be afforded a more efficient form of education 
and the hope that by providing for differentiated courses 
to some extent in the last part of the elementary school 
pupils may be encouraged to carry their education further. 
(3) Vocational and prevocational education : The fact that 
such a large percentage of boys and girls leave school before 
entering the high school and enter the field of industry with- 
out definite aim and with no conception of the job, trade, or 
work which they enter, has led to an emphasis by some 
educators on the necessity of certain forms of vocational 
or prevocational work in the last grades of the elementary 



RELATION TO ELEIVIENTARY EDUCATION 289 

school, coordinated where possible with such work in the 
secondary school. Emphasis attaches here also to the fact 
that the close of the present elementary school comes at the 
close of the period of compulsory education set by law in 
most States and the undoubted fact that elimination in the 
seventh, eighth, and first-year high-school grades is closely 
correlated with the close of the compulsory attendance 
period. 

1 1 6. Administrative factors involved. Numerous factors 
involved in the administration of the schools are of impor- 
tance in connection with reforms of the articulation between 
elementary and secondary education. These are of such 
varied character that they defy generaHzation, but among 
them may be mentioned several factors, for the most part 
related to the considerations previously adduced, (a) It 
has long been recognized that certain reforms are desirable 
in. the studies of the seventh and eighth grades. Such 
reforms include the elimination of some obsolete and useless 
material, the reduction of review work, and the reorganiza- 
iJon of studies so as to include educational means more 
suitable for the activities of hves which the pupils will later 
lead. Much pruning is desirable in the studies of the seventh 
and eighth grades as at present organized.^ (6) The work of 
the high school under existing conditions is crowded, es- 
pecially for those pupils who are destined to enter college. 
An earher beginning of some subjects now confined to the 
secondary-school program would do much to relieve the 
congested work of the high school for some groups of pupils. 
(c) The number of retarded and over-age pupils now found 
in the lower grades of the elementary school demands atten- 
tion and calls for some form of reorganization which will 

^ Cf . Part I of the Fourteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the 
Study of Education, "•Minimum Essentials in Elementary School Subjects.'* 
Cf . also Sixteenth Yearbook, Part I. 



290 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAKY EDUCATION 

permit those pupils to enter on work which they can do 
rather than perpetually review work for which they have 
manifested their ineptitude. This means provision for some 
different forms of education in the later grades of the 
elementary school than those now found there, (d) It is 
imperative that some amount of differentiated work be 
provided in the seventh or eighth grades. This cannot be 
accomplished under the existing organization. The adap- 
tation of school work to the needs of individual differences 
in capacities, interests, and probable futm-e activities on 
the part of pupils is economically impossible where small 
groups of pupils are involved. If differentiated work is to 
be provided, for example in the eighth grade, pupils of that 
grade must be assembled in larger groups than are now 
commonly found in separated elementary schools. Differ- 
entiated work quite impossible in the small school becomes 
feasible in the large school, (e) Provision must be made to 
afford more contentful studies in the later grades of the 
elementary school both for the sake of those who must 
leave school early and for the encouragement of those who 
can be led to continue their education into the secondary 
school. (/) The acceleration of brighter pupils is at present 
handicapped by the methods of promotion regularly foimd 
in the elementary school. Promotion by subjects rather 
than by grades must be instituted in the seventh and eighth 
grades, (g) In many larger communities crowded high 
schools offer serious social and administrative problems. 
A group of junior high schools articulated with senior high 
schools would do much to relieve the crowding of pupils 
in a central high school. Qi) In rural communities high 
schools of the present type are frequently imeconomical 
and sometimes impossible. In many such cases the earlier 
beginning of some forms of secondary education would 
make possible some degree of acquaintance with second- 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 291 

ary-school work for many children who otherwise would 
go without contact with any other school influences than 
those now found in the elementary school. 



V. The Junior High School 

117. The six-grade course of secondary education. The 
present movement toward the development of a six-grade 
course of secondary education had its beginning in the last 
decade of the nineteenth century. Certain suggestions made 
by President EHot at the meeting of the Department of 
Superintendence in 1888 called attention to defects in our 
school system, primarily affecting the relation between the 
high school and the college, but incidentally affecting the 
relation between elementary and secondary schools. In 
1893 the "Committee of Ten" introduced in its report cer- 
tain recommendations involving the articulation between 
elementary and secondary education. Of particular inter- 
est is that portion of the report which states: 

In the opinion of the Committee, several subjects now reserved 
for high schools, — such as algebra, geometry, natural science, 
and foreign languages, — should be begun earlier than now, and 
therefore within the schools classified as elementary; or, as an 
alternative, the secondary school period should be made to begin 
two years earlier than at present, leaving six years instead of eight 
for the elementary school j)eriod. Under the present organization, 
elementary subjects and elementary methods are, in the judgment 
of the Committee, kept in use too long.^ 

Numerous suggestions were made for a readjustment of 
the grades of the school system subsequent to the report 
of the "Committee of Ten." In particular the "Committee 
of Five" of the National Education Association in 1907, 

* Report of the Committee on Secondary School Studies, p. 45 (Bureau of 
Education edition). 



292 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

1908, and 1909 recommended an equal division of the 
grades between elementary and secondary education. In 
1902 the "Pettee Committee" recommended the following 
scheme:^ 

Division Schod Qradea Aget 

p . 5 Lower or Primary School 1-3 6-9 

rrimary ^ ^pp^^. ^^ Grammar School 4- 6 9-12 

c J ( Lower High School 7- 9 li2-15 

Secondary | ^pper High School 10-12 15-18 

rp . . ( College or Technical School . . . 18-21 

lertiary { Professional or Graduate School ... 21-24 

Up to 1910 the development of six-grade high schools was 
slow, only about twenty-two cities in that year reporting 
six-year high-school courses of study to the Bureau of Edu- 
cation. By that time, however, the movement toward the 
reorganization of the last grades of the elementary school 
and of the secondary school had assumed a somewhat differ- 
ent form which marked the beginning of the junior high 
school or intermediate school. 

1 1 8. The junior high-school movement. "While numerous 
attempts had been made previously in different parts of the 
country to reorganize the work of the late grades of the ele- 
mentary, the real beginning of the present junior high school 
or intermediate school movement is probably to be found in 
the reorganization of the school systems in Columbus, Ohio 
(1908), Berkeley, California (1910), Concord, New Hamp- 
shire (1910), and Los Angeles, California (1911). Reorgan- 
ization developed rapidly thereafter in several lines. Thus 
of cities included in an incomplete list making returns 
to the Bureau of Education in 1914-1915, cities reported 
school systems organized in such combinations of elemen- 
tary, intermediate, and high-school grades as 6-1-5, 6-2-4 

* For that report in condensed form and with proposed curriculum 
attached cf. Hanus, P., A Modern School, pp. 105-09. 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 293 

(thirty-five cities), 6-3-3 (twenty-six cities), 6-4-2, 5-3-4. ^ 
As a result of his study Douglass reported in 1916 that of 
184 school systems, 11 were organized on a 5-3-4 plan, 77 
on a 6-2-4 plan, 64 on a 6-3-3 plan, 10 on a 6-6 plan, and 
22 according to various other plans. ^ On the whole the plan 
which seems hkely to receive ultimate recognition is the 
six-grade elementary school, followed by a junior high school 
of three grades, followed by a senior high school of three 
grades. Of systems now organized on the 6-2^ plan many 
are to be considered as in a stage of transition. While the 
present is noticeably a period of experimentation and such 
reorganized systems of education must be considered as on 
trial, there is evidence that the movement is destined to 
develop rapidly within the next decade. Its status is at 
present difficult to determine both because of the lack of 
fixed standards and because the rapid changes which are 
taking place make it difficult to secure accurate data. Re- 
ports received by Douglass indicate that between three and 
four hundred junior high schools or intermediate schools 
were claimed to be in operation in 1916.^ 

119. The purposes of the junior high school. The pur- 
poses of the junior high school organization are tg correct 
the defects now found in our school system. They involve, 
therefore, the following factors. 

(1) Provision for a better coordination and articulation 
between elementary and secondary education and provision 
for gradual transition from earlier to later grades in the 
school system. This demands: (a) the close relationing of 
each successive grade with the preceding grade as far as 
teaching material and teaching method are concerned; 

* Briggs, T. H., in Report of the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion (1914), vol. I, pp. 135-57. 

* Douglass, A. A., "The Junior High School," Fifteenth Yearbook of the 
National Society for the Study of Education^ part ni, p. 88. 

3 Douglass, A. A., cp. cit., p. 27. 



294 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

(6) gradual change from the one-teacher plan of the elemen- 
tary school to the many-teacher plan of the secondary school; 

(c) gradual change from largely supervised work in the 
earlier grades to more independent work involving initia- 
tive, self-reliance, and responsibility in the later grades; 

(d) the gradual introduction of new subject matter and its ' 
relationing to old subject matter; (e) the gradual introduc- 
tion of "election"; (f) gradual change in teaching methods 
and in methods of treating children. 

(2) Provision earlier in the school system to adapt the 
work of the school to individual differences among pupils 
in capacities, aptitudes, interests, and future activities, as 
well as to the differentiated needs of society. This demands: 
(a) the earlier introduction of some differentiated studies 
for different groups of pupils; (6) promotion of pupils by 
subjects rather than by grades; (c) increased flexibility in 
the administration of education in the intermediate grades; 
(d) provision for the introduction of some forms of instruc- 
tion which may give pupils an opportunity to explore and 
test out their capacities, aptitudes, and initerests; {e) provi- 
sion for some forms of educational diagnosis and direction; 
(/) recognition of the needs of those leaving school early; (g) 
provision for economy of time in the case of brighter pupils. 

(3) Recognition of the importance of the factors of retar- 
dation and elimination. This involves: (a) reorganization of 
the subject matter of the present seventh and eighth grades 
so as to provide a more contentful and effective form of 
education for those who must leave school early; (5) the 
introduction of some prevocational education for those 
pupils; (c) provision for the reduction of retardation and 
elimination by improved methods of controlling progress 
through the grades; (d) the encouragement of larger num- 
bers of pupils to continue their education into the senior 
high school. 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 295 

(4) Reorganization of teaching materials and teaching 
methods. The beHef is gromng stronger that subjects of 
study in the junior high school should be organized prima- 
rily with reference to the capacities and needs of the pupils 
and with reference to their activities in life after the school, 
and not primarily in terms of the logical organization de- 
manded by the subject considered as a logically arranged 
field of knowledge. The study of subjects as logically organ- 
ized units or fields of knowledge should be reserved for the 
work in the senior high school. 

120. DiflSculties to be met. No such comprehensive reor- 
ganization as that contemplated by the jimior high school 
movement can be accomplished without involving many 
readjustments and difficulties at least temporary. Many 
of those difficulties may be dismissed at once on the ground 
that they are but temporary problems incidetital to any 
effective form of reorganization. Such are those arising 
in some states from established laws or regulations affecting 
the distribution of public funds, the certification of teachers, 
taxation, etc., the necessity of readjusting college entrance 
requirements in terms of reorganized education, the bicker- 
ings and political maneuvers of disgruntled principals and 
teachers, wraiuglings over the location of schools, etc. When 
these objections to the establishment of junior high schools 
have been dismissed, however, there remain at least four 
important problems to be considered. 

(1) If all pupils were destined to continue in school 
throughout the full twelve-year course and if the exigencies 
of administration made it possible, it would be advisable to 
have one undivided system consisting of grades one to 
twelve. Neither of those assumptions hold, however, and it 
is probable that they never can hold. Divisions in the school 
system are made necessary by the exigencies of administra- 
tion. They are to some extent made desirable by the fact 



296 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

that many pupils leave school before the complete course is 
covered. The division of the school system into three de- 
partments as contemplated by the junior high school plan 
involves the danger of creating two critical points in the 
school system instead of the one now foxmd between ele- 
mentary and secondary education. Great care is necessary 
that evils now found at the one point of division may not be 
increased by the creation of two points of division. The 
second divisional point in the school system (between the 
junior and senior high schools) will doubtless improve the 
retention of pupils up to the age of fifteen or sixteen. It will 
doubtless also have some tendency to encourage elimination 
at that point. Whether or not the general stimulus provided 
by its organization will encourage retention beyond that 
limit so as to outweigh a certain amount of elimination 
fostered there remains to be seen. Experience to date would 
appear to give an aflSrmative answer to this problem. 

(2) The fundamentally important point has been raised 
by Bagley^ that while "the advantages are clearly on the 
side of a * six-six' organization from the point of view of 
administrative expediency and to a large extent from the 
standpoint of educational theory " the early introduction of 
the factor of differentiation may serve to limit the factor of 
integration providing "a common basis of certain ideas and 
ideals and standards which go a long way toward insuring 
'social solidarity' — a basis of common thought and common 
aspiration which is absolutely essential to an effective democ- 
racy." This objection to the reorganized system is a serious 
one if valid. Two facts, however, suggest that Bagley's 
position is open to question. The first is that a basis of com- 
mon thought and common aspiration must be retained in 
the junior high school under any circumstances. The second 

1 Bagley, W. C, "The 'Six-Six' Plan," School and Home Education, 
vol. XXXIV, p. 3. 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 297 

is that the integrating function of education and the differ- 
entiating function of education must be considered supple- 
mentary and not antagonistic. On this theory elementary 
education is not to be considered as being confined exclu- 
sively to integration, nor is secondary education to be consid- 
ered as confined exclusively to differentiation. Nevertheless 
Bagley has called attention to a danger which must be 
avoided carefully. 

(3) It is commonly estimated that the expense of educa- 
tion under the junior-senior high school plan will increase 
the cost of the schools. Of thirty cities reporting the cost 
of the junior high school instruction to the Bureau of Edu- 
cation, seventeen reported that the junior high school costs 
more per capita than the elementary school, seven reported 
that the cost was the same, and six qualified their answers. 
Comparing the cost \sith that of the high school, ten re- 
ported that it was the same, and twenty that it was less. 
On general grounds it has been estimated that the per capita 
cost will be between the present cost of elementary-school 
education and secondary-school education. On the surface 
at least this means added expense for the maintenance of 
the school system. It must be remembered, however, that 
a decrease in the amount of retardation, if brought about 
through the reorganization of the system, may altogether 
offset the added expense incurred. It must further be re- 
membered that economy and efficiency may be attained 
by increasing both expense and returns for that expense, 
as well as by increasing returns for the same expense or 
decreasing expense for the same returns. A broader social 
and educational economy may well justify an extended 
financial outlay. 

(4) Changes in the form of organization, changes in cur- 
riculum, changes in the form of administration, are all read- 
ily subject to the fiat of educational authorities. For reform 



298 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

in the effectiveness of the school system, however, such ar- 
bitrary changes depend on the readiness with which instruc- 
tion may be adapted to them. It is at this point that the 
greatest difficulties must always be found. The proposed 
reorganization includes the introduction into earlier grades 
of certain studies previously foimd only in later grades, to- 
gether with other subjects of study which are relatively 
new in any department of public education. Around older 
subjects of study there has developed a body of teaching 
method, embodied in textbooks, incorporated in the theory 
and practice of teachers, and recognized as "standard" 
for pupils from one to three years older than those for 
whom subjects have been provided heretofore. Further, 
certain studies which it is proposed to put into the program 
of the junior high school have as yet no established body 
of teaching method or organization. When it is realized 
that it takes more than a generation to develop a body of 
method, to train teachers, and to standardize textbooks in 
any given field, it must be recognized that the changes in 
teachers, in methods, and in textbooks, necessary for real 
reform in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, constitute 
one of the greatest problems involved in the reorganization 
of the schools. 

Note : Many factors involved in the relation between elemen- 
tary and secondary education and certain factors involved in the 
junior-senior high school plan have already been considered in 
preceding chapters. All matters of programs, curricula, and or- 
ganization are dealt with in Part III, especially in Chapters XX 
and XXI. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Compare the curricula of any related elementary and secondary school 
of about 1890 with the curricula of any such system after 1910. 

2. Examine the curricula of elementary schools in different cities and 
compare the studies offered and the relative amount of time devoted 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 299 

to each. (Cf . Fourteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study 
of Education, pp. 21-27, and Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society 
for the Study of Education, part iii.) 

3. Compare the programs of study for boys from nine to fourteen years of 
age in the Prussian higher schools, in French secondary schools, and in 
the four last grades of the American elementary school. 

4. Examine and criticize available data concerning the relative standing 
of pupils in the elementary and secondary schools. (Cf. references in 
bibliography following.) 

5. Compare the relative advantages and disadvantages of the 8-4, 6-6, 
6-3-3, 6-2-4 plans for organization of the public schools. 

6. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of a single twelve- 
grade system without administrative or other divisions? 

7. Compare and evaluate the curricula of the different junior high schools 
presented in Report of the United States Commissioner of Education 
(1914), vol. I, pp. 153-57. (Cf. also Douglass, A. A., in bibliography 
following.) 

8. Assuming that the transition from elementary education to secondary 
education should be gradual, show how such specific factors as the 
introduction of subject matter, changes in teaching method, etc., 
might be arranged to contribute toward that end. 

9. Consider the problem of the relation between integration and differen- 
tiation (common elements and diversified elements) in connection 
with the different divisions, actual and proposed, of the public school 
system. (Cf. Bagley, W. C, "The 'Six-Six' Plan," School and Home 
Education, vol. xxxrv, no. 4 (December, 1914), pp. 119-31, and Inglis, 
A. J., "The Socialization of the High School," Teachers College Record, 
vol. XVI, no. 3 (May, 1915), pp. 1-12 (205-16). 

10. Assuming that the per-pupil cost of the junior high school would be 
approximately halfw ay between that of the elementary school and that 
of the high school, estimate the probable added cost of the reorganized 
school system on the supposition that retardation should remain con- 
stant; on the supposition that it decreased one third or one half; on the 
supposition that elimination should be decreased one third. (Cf. 
Springfield, Illinois, Survey, pp. 96-97.) 

11. Consider the problems of teachers for the junior high school. 

12. Consider the arrangement of the course of study in any one subject in 
a reorganized system of public schools. 

13. Consider the problem of economy of time in education as affected by 
the articulation between elementary and secondary education. (Cf. 
Russell, W. F., Economy in Secondary Education.) 



SOO PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Note : The literature relating to the articulation of elementary and secon- 
dary education is so voluminous that any extended bibliography is here 
impossible. Hence there are included below such references only as: (a) 
represent somewhat comprehensive treatments of the field; (6) the well- 
considered reports of various organization, committees, departments of 
education, etc. ; (c) special articles dealing especially with the most recent 
phases particularly with the junior high school movement; (d) articles and 
reports dealing with actual experiments. For references dealing with the 
questions of individual differences concerned in the problem see the bibli- 
ography for Chapter III. For those dealing with questions arising out of 
retardation and elimination see the bibliography of Chapter IV. 

I. General treatment: 

Josselyn, H. W., "The Relation of the High School to the Elemen- 
tary School," chap, v of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), The Modern 
High School. 

Davis, C. O., "The Reorganization of Secondary Education," chap. 
IV of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High School Education. 

Bunker, F. F., " Reorganization of the Public School System," 
Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1916), no. 8. 
II. Reports of committees, organizations, etc. : 

National Education Association, Report of the Committee of Ten on 
Secondary School Studies, Proceedings (1893). 

National Education Association, Report of the Committee on the 
Equal Division of the Twelve Years in the Public Schools between 
the District and High Schools (Morrison), Proceedings (1907), 
pp.705#. 

National Education Association, Report of Committee on Economy of 
Time in Education, Proceedings (1914), pp. 206-22. Also in 
Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1913), no. 38. 

National Society for the Study of Education, Reports of the Com- 
mittee on Minimal Essentials in Elementary-School Subjects, Four- 
teenth Yearbook, part i; Sixteenth Yearbook, part i. 

California Teachers' Association, Report of the Council, Sierra Edu' 
cational News, September, 1912. Summarized in School and Home 
Education, vol. xxxiv, no. 8 (April, 1915), pp. 279-80. 

Conference of Collegiate and Secondary Instructors, Report of 
Committee, November, 1902. Condensed report (Pettee), Hanus, 
P. H., A Modern School, pp. 105-09, and in Brown, J. F., The 
American High School, pp. 411-15. 

Meredith, A. B., "The Six- Year High School," Annual Report of the 
New Jersey State Board of Education (1913), pp. 193-96. 



RELATION TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION SOI 

Briggs, T. H., in Report of the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion (1914), vol. I, pp. 135-57. Contains lists of junior high schools 
established up to 1914 and typical curricula, etc. 

III. Special studies on the junior high school : 

Briggs, T. H., "The Junior High School," Old Penn Weekly Review 
(University of Pennsylvania), vol. xiii, no. 32, pp. 1002-07. 

Coflfman, L. D., Bagley, W. C, and Snedden, D. (Joint discus- 
sion), "The Minimum Essentials versus the Differentiated 
Course of Study in the Seventh and Eighth Grades," National 
Education Association, Proceedings of the Department of Super- 
intendence, vol. iv (1916), no. 6, pp. 63-86. 

Douglass, A. A., "The Present Status of the Junior High School," 
Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xxii, no. 2, pp. 252-74. 

Douglass, A. A., "The Junior High School," Fifteenth Yearbook of 
the National Society for the Study of Education, part in. The most 
comprehensive study of the junior high school movement yet 
published. Bibliography of 175 titles to 1916. 

Judd, C. H., "The Junior High School," School Review, vol. xxiii, 
pp. 25-33. (Rejoinder by Bagley, W. C, School and Home Educa- 
tion, vol. XXXIV, pp. 212-16.) 

Bagley, W. C, various articles in School and Home Education, vol. 
XXXIV, pp. 1-5, 41, 79-80, 119-31, 212-16, 239-41, 279-80, etc. 

Johnston, C. H., "Movement toward the Reorganization of Second- 
ary Education," Educational Administration and Supervision, 
vol. I, pp. 165-72. 

Inglis, A. J., "A Fundamental Problem in the Reorganization of the 
High School," School Review, vol. xxni, pp. 307-18. 

Bonser, F. G., "Democratizing Secondary Education by the Six- 
Three-Three Plan," Educational Administration and Supervision, 
vol. I, pp. 567-76. 

Snedden, D., "The Character and Extent of Desirable Flexibility 
as to Courses of Instruction and Training for Youths of 12 to 
14 Years of Age," Educational Administration and Supervision, 
vol. II, pp. 219-34. 

High School Masters' Club of Massachusetts, Report of Committee 
on the Junior High School. (Contains bibliography.) 

IV. Special experiments, etc.: 

Carter, R. E., A Study of the Correlation of Elementary and High 
School Grades of a City System, Master's Dissertation (1911), 
University of Chicago. (Cf. Elementary School Teacher, vol. xii, 
pp. 109/.) 

Johnson, F. W., "A Comparative Study of the Grades of Pu- 
pils from Different Elementary Schools in the Subjects of the 
First Year in High School," Elementary School Teacher, vol. xi, 
pp. 63-78. 



302 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Miles, W. R., ** Comparison of Elementary and HigH School Grades," 
Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xvii, pp. 429-50. 

Clement, J. A., Standardization of the Schools of Kansas, Doctor's 
Dissertation (1912), University of Chicago. 
V. Extended Bibliographies: 

Douglass, A. A., in reference given above; Abelson, J., A Bibliog- 
raphy of the Junior High School," Education, vol. xxxvii, pp. 
122-29; Massachusetts School Masters' Club, Report of Committee 
on the Junior High School, pp. 38-43. 



CHAPTER Vm 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN RELATION TO HIGHER 

EDUCATION 

I. Historical Development and Present Status 

121. Early relations. Until within a relatively recent 
period the articulation between secondary education and 
higher education (as represented by the college or university) 
has always been closer than the relation between elementary 
and secondary education. Such a situation was largely due 
to the fact that elementary education, especially in Europe, 
was conceived as appropriate for the lower classes, while 
both secondary education and higher education were de- 
signed for the more fortunate classes who had more leisure 
for education and more need of it in the leading position 
which they occupied in society. Hence the earUer secondary 
schools were conceived as schools whose most important 
function was preparation leading to higher education for 
professions, especially the ministry, law, and medicine, or 
for that degree of culture deemed suitable for the upper 
classes. This conception has always been dominant in 
Europ>ean countries, was dominant in this country until 
a relatively recent period, and was not abandoned when 
the conception developed that the secondary school had 
other important functions in addition to the legitimate 
function of preparation for higher education. The essential 
forms of secondary education, which had developed when 
the main function of the secondary school was preparation 
for the college or university, continued to remain in force 
long after it was realized that other functions were involved. 



304. PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

The justification for this state of affairs was assumed to lie 
in the behef that the sort of training provided in preparation 
for higher education was that best suited also for all other 
activities in life, and as long as such a conception obtained 
little change was made in the general economy of the second- 
ary school to differentiate the work of the school for pupils 
preparing for higher education and those who were destined 
not to enter higher institutions. The conception that the 
work of the secondary school should be differentiated to 
conform to the needs of various groups of pupils was a 
development in theory during the nineteenth century. In 
France, Germany, and America it was the central issue of a 
century-long struggle. Its fulfillment in practice is as yet 
by no means complete. 

122. The Latin grammar school and the college. The 
recognized purpose of the Latin grammar school of the 
American colonies was preparation for admission to college. 
This appears from the law passed by the General Court of 
the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1647 which provided for 
the education of boys "so far as they may be fitted for the 
university.'* What college preparation meant at that time 
and later is illustrated by the requirements for entrance to 
Harvard College in 1642: ^ 

When any scholar is able to read Tully (Cicero) or such like 
classical author extempore, and made and speake true Latin ia 
verse and prose, suo (ut aiunt) Marte, and decline perfectly the 
paragigms of nounes and verbes in ye Greeke tongue, then may hee 
bee admitted to ye college, nor shall any claime admission before 
such qualifications. 

Similar requirements of proficiency in Latin and Greek 
remained practically the sole requirements for admission 

* Translation attached to the Latin version of The Statutes, Laws, etc., 
of Harvard College, College Book 1. Cf. Broome, E. C, A Historical and 
Critical Discussion of College Admission Requirements. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 305 

to colleges throughout the colonial period, and the relation 
between college and grammar school did not change mate- 
rially within that period. In Massachusetts the situation was 
absurd. By the law of 1789 and according to the census of 
1790 about 113 grammar schools were required. According' 
to the census of 1820 about 173 such schools were required. 
As late as 1825 the freshman class entering Harvard was 
only seventy-one, and probably not more than one hundred 
boys from Massachusetts entered college at all in any one 
year. Thus there were more schools required in the State 
than there were boys entering college in any one year. 

123. The early academy and the college. The academy 
in America in many cases originated for the distinct pur- 
pose of emphasizing the education of boys and girls who 
did not intend to enter college. It has ended by becoming 
the "preparatory school" par excellence and in some cases 
itself developed into a college. It is not to be supposed, 
however, that the academy did not provide for college prep- 
aration in its early days. In most of the early academies 
provision was regularly made for those who intended to go 
to college, and in time there developed a large number of 
academies which were designed to prepare pupils for par- 
ticular colleges, frequently being officially connected with 
the college itself. Commonly separate courses were pro- 
vided for those going to college and for those not going to 
college, so that in the academy first were developed differ- 
entiated courses later to be taken over in part by the public 
high school. It is not necessary here to emphasize the fact 
that many academies more or less encroached on the field of 
the college and in some cases became serious rivals of the 
poorer colleges. 

124. The public high school and the college. The first 
high school established in the United States was established 
in order to provide secondary education for boys who were 



306 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

not intended for college. For this reason it has sometimes 
been assumed that the public high school in its early days 
confined its attention to education other than for college 
entrance and neglected the latter. It is true that the Eng- 
lish Classical (High) School of Boston was designed for the 
education of boys who did not intend to go to college and 
that it ignored college preparation. It must be remembered, 
however, that college preparation was already provided for 
in the Boston Public Latin School and that in Boston the 
English High School was established' to supplement the 
work of the Latin School, not to replace it. Except in a few 
scattered cases where the old Latin grammar schools sur- 
vived the newly established public high school provided 
secondary education both for boys who were going to college 
and for boys and girls not so destined. While it is true that 
the law which began the public high-school movement in 
Massachusetts (and in the United States) provided for two 
types of secondary schools, the lower of which did not pro- 
vide an education adequate for admission to college, it is 
also true that such differentiation existed in the statutes only 
and that when a high school of any type was established 
it almost never failed to include in its curriculum those 
studies necessary for admission to college — Latin, Greek, 
mathematics, etc. Hence from its beginning the public high 
school has always included in its economy provision for 
preparing its pupils for admission to college. In fact not 
until within the past few decades, if even now, has prepa- 
ration for college ceased to be the dominant factor affect- 
ing the character of the work done in the public high 
school. 

The specific requirements for entrance to college as affect- 
ing the public secondary school will be considered more 
fully in later sections, but certain general conditions may 
be mentioned here. First, many studies once confined to 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 307 

the college curriculum have gradually backed down into the 
curriculum of the high school. Second, the general scope of 
the subject-matter of the academy and pubhc high school 
has always far transcended the requirements for admission 
to college, and in the introduction of new subjects the high 
school has constantly anticipated the requirements set by 
the college. Third, the number of pupils attending the high 
schools has increased greatly and the number of pupils pre- 
paring for college has increased greatly, but the propor- 
tion of college preparatory pupils has constantly decreased. 
Foiu'th, the probable extent to which the public high school 
may go in organizing its system so as to provide specific 
preparation for college has assumed importance because 
of the diflSculties attendant on the proper coordination of 
the work for various groups attending the high school and 
the necessity of consulting the interests and needs of the 
many who do not go to college as well as the needs of the 
relatively few who do. 

125. The rise of public State universities. The establish- 
ment of State colleges and universities, particularly in the 
West and Middle West, did much to simplify and improve 
the relation between the secondary schools and colleges in this 
country. As long as colleges were private or semi-private 
institutions the articulation between secondary and higher 
education was determined by the more or less arbitrary 
requirements imposed by the college authorities. Confusion, 
imperfect articulation, and lack of uniformity were the 
natural results of such a situation. But with the rise of 
State colleges and universities considered as integral parts 
of a public system of education organically related to the 
secondary schools a new element was introduced and a 
closer coordination between the two institutions was ulti- 
mately required. The conception of a complete system of 
education, the parts of which should be closely articulated 



308 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

with each other, was found in the first quarter of the nine- 
teenth century and even before. Thus it found its way into 
the constitution of the State of Indiana adopted in 1816 
providing for *'a general system of education, ascending in 
regular gradation from township schools to a state univer- 
sity wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all." ^ 
Nevertheless, it was not until the impetus of Federal aid was 
given to States by the Morrill Act of 1862 that the move- 
ment began in earnest, and it was not until the last quarter 
of the nineteenth century that its development noticeably 
improved the relation between secondary education and 
college education. Still more recent has been the develop- 
ment of mimicipal colleges which, within their limited fields, 
have aided the closer articulation of secondary schools and 
higher institutions. 

126. The secondary school and the nonnal school. The 
relation between the secondary school and the normal school 
has always involved confusion. For a long period one of the 
important functions of the secondary school was conceived to 
be the training of teachers for the elementary school. Even 
at present it is by no means the exception to find teacher- 
training courses in the public high schools. In 1914-15 
pupils were reported to be enrolled in training courses for 
teachers in certain pubUc high schools of every State in the 
Union except Rhode Island, South Carolina, Nevada, and 
the District of Columbia. Such pupils in 1914-15 num- 
bered 25,721 (3501 boys and 22,220 girls), of whom sixty 
per cent were enrolled in high schools of the North Central 
States. In Kansas nearly fifteen per cent of the girls en- 
rolled in public high schools were enrolled in teacher-train- 
ing courses. In many States the demand for elementary- 
school teachers has led to the introduction or retention of 
such courses largely on the grounds of expediency. It 
^ Constitution of the State of Indiana (1816), art. ix, sec. 2. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 309 

should be noted, however, that such a practice has danger- 
ous tendencies in that it frequently leads toward educa- 
tional in-breeding, results commonly in over-ambitious 
attempts toward higher education in the high schools, and 
frequently interferes with the proper development of normal 
schools by bringing them into competition with the public 
high schools. 

As the public high school in some cases has encroached on 
the field of the normal school, so has the normal school in 
many cases encroached on the field of the public high school. 
In many States the normal school has occupied itself with 
education essentially secondary in character. Even at 
present the practice is by no means uncommon of admitting 
students to the normal school who have had no high-school 
education, or one to three years of high-school work. Where 
normal schools were essentially private institutions, as 
formerly in Pennsylvania, standards of admission were ex- 
tremely lax and the normal schools frequently became actual 
competitors of the public high school for purposes of second- 
ary education. The situation is thus described for Pennsyl- 
vania in 1910 by Holland : ^ 

The Pennsylvania State normal schools and the public high 
schools are to-day in direct conflict. In previous chapters it has 
been shown that a large number of the normal-school students 
belong to the high-school period, and their academic preparation is 
such that they should be attending the secondary schools in their 
own neighborhood. . . . Strange to say the normal-school princi- 
pals as late as 1910 agreed ujjon a four-year course of study that 
possesses many characteristics of the ordinary high school and 
places their institutions in direct competition with the rapidly 
increasing public high schools. 

As a general principle it may be stated that normal schools 
should be so related to the public secondary school as to 

^ Holland, E. 0., The Pennsylvania State Normal Schools and Public 
School System, p. 80. Cf. also ibid., pp. 2, 37-54, 80-90. 



310 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

receive its students therefrom and continue their education, 
directed along special lines appropriate to their later voca- 
tion, from the point at which the secondary school closes. 
Any departure from that principle must be considered as a 
temporary expediency to be abandoned at the earliest oppor- 
tunity. As a corollary it follows that training courses for 
teachers should not have a place in the public secondary 
school except as a temporary expediency. 

127. The overlapping of secondary school and college. 
The curriculum of the public high school has always tran- 
scended the requirements of subject-matter set up by the 
colleges for admission and frequently has included subjects 
regularly included in the college curriculum. Likewise the 
college curriculum regularly includes subjects of study which 
are essentially of secondary-school grade, e.g., courses in 
foreign languages for beginners, elementary courses in the 
sciences, etc. Thus there is always a certain amount of over- 
lapping in the curricula of the secondary school and college. 
In the average high school it would not be at all difficult to 
map out a one- or two-year "post-graduate" course which 
(with respect to the subjects studied and the amount of time 
devoted to them) would be quite comparable to possible 
freshman or sophomore courses in college. 

For more than a quarter of a century occasional attempts 
have been made to extend the work of the high school upward 
so as to provide what might be called "graduate" work, 
more or less comparable to the earlier part of the college 
course. In certain cities, notably in Joliet, Illinois, such 
attempts met with success. It was not until 1907, however, 
that any comprehensive organization was attempted covering 
more than one community. In that year the State Legisla- 
ture of California passed a law providing: 

The high-school board of any high-school district, or trustees of 
any county high school may prescribe post-graduate courses of 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 311 

study for the graduates of such high school or other high schools, 
which course of study shall approximate the studies prescribed in 
the first two years of university courses.^ 

The first city to take advantage of this opportunity was 
Fresno, which established such a post graduate high-school 
course in 1910. By March, 1915, more than twelve "junior 
colleges "2 had been established in California, and about 
two thousand pupils were enrolled in post-gradliate courses 
in that State. In other States a few similar institutions 
have been established in spite of the diflficulties encountered 
in existing legal technicalities, lack of close cooperation 
on the part of colleges of the usual type, and the element of 
increased expense. 

Claims for the values of the junior college are made : 

It offers peculiar advantages, first, to the student who cannot 
afford to live away from home; second, to the young and immature 
student who is not yet ready to cope with the problems incident 
upon life at a large university; third, to the student who has failed 
to get his recommendation for college but who, by faithful and 
consistent study, may prove himself ready for advanced work; 
and fourth, to the student who does not intend to enter college, 
but who desires to continue his study along certain lines. ^ 

To these claims may be added the claims that increased 
proportions of high-school graduates may be encouraged 
to attempt appropriate forms of higher education and the 
claim that in the larger universities (especially State uni- 
versities) work is being done at public expense in higher 

^ School Law of California (1915), p. 151. 

2 The use of the term "junior college" as here employed must be dis- 
tinguished from its use as employed for certain institutions in Wisconsin, 
Missouri, and Virginia. Cf. Report of the United States Commissioner of 
Education (1914), vol. i, pp. 166-67. 

3 Announcement of the Santa Barbara (California) Junior College, 
quoted at p. 22 of Report of the Commissioner of Secondary Schools, Califor- 
nia State Board of Education, 1914. 



S12 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

institutions with much higher cost that might better be done 
in junior colleges at much lower cost. Further it is urged 
that the large size of classes entering the first year of college 
or university work render impossible that degree of indi- 
vidual attention most desirable. 

At present the movement must be considered as in the 
experimental stage. Numerous difficulties, especially lack 
of college and university cooperation, have interfered with 
its development. In all probability the dominant factor 
determining the growth and status of the junior college will 
be the increased financial outlay necessary. It should, how- 
ever, be remembered that much of the increased expenditure 
on the extended high school will be offset by the reduced 
college expenditure. 

128. High-school pupils entering higher institutions. 
Opinions frequently expressed concerning the number and 
proportion of high-school graduates going to higher insti- 
tutions commonly err in one of two ways, either overesti- 
mating or underestimating the number of such pupils. In 
sections 42-43 figures have already been presented indicat- 
ing the percentages of pupils in the various grades of the 
high school destined to enter higher institutions. From 
those figures it appears that those pupils constitute an im- 
portant portion of the secondary-school population (one 
sixth of those who enter the secondary school, one quarter 
of those in the second year, one third of those in the third 
year, nearly one half of those in the fourth year, one half of 
those who graduate, and more than one quarter of all pupils 
in the high school at any one time). This group represents 
one of the largest roughly homogeneous groups of pupils 
in the public high schools. Nevertheless, it must be recog- 
nized that it represents a portion only, and by no means the 
largest portion, of the high-school population. More numer- 
ous and certainly not less important are those pupils who 



RELATION TO fflGHER EDUCATION 



813 



either will not complete the high-school course, dropping 
out after one, two, or three years of secondary education, 
or completing the high-school course, will not continue their 
education in school beyond that limit. While exact figures 
are not available whereby the relative proportions of those 
two general groups may be determined, the data presented 
in the following table indicate that the proportion has 
changed decidedly even within the past two decades. 

Table CVII. Nuiuber of College Students to Each 
1000 High-School Pupils 1893-94 — 1913-14* 



Periods 



1893-94, 
1903-04. 
1913-14. 



College and 
university 
students 



88,471 
128,063 
1216,493 



High-school 
■pupils 



289,274 

635,808 

1,218,804 



College and uni- 
versity students 
to each 1000 
high-school pu- 
pils 



305 
201 
173 



* Compiled from data given in Report of the United States Commissioner of Education 
(1914), vol. II, pp. 192, 409. 

The changing population of the public high school has 
made imperative changes in its economy. In the past the 
relatively large proportion of pupils entering the high 
school who were destined for higher education and the 
somewhat definite and tangible goal set up for the education 
of those pupils in the high school, have determined the cur- 
riculum and general economy of the secondary school. 
Within recent years the increased proportion of high-school 
pupils not destined for higher education and the formula- 
tion of more definite and tangible aims for the education of 
those pupils, have demanded the subordination of college- 
admission functions to more diversified aims affecting the 
larger proportion of secondary-school pupils. To a certain 



314 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

extent conditions have been practically reversed. The 
former problem involved the question of how the pubhc 
secondary school might best be articulated with higher 
education : the present problem involves the question of how 
the higher institutions may best be articulated with the 
public secondary school. The former theory that that kind 
of secondary education which was best fitted to prepare pu- 
pils for college was also well fitted to educate pupils not so 
destined is being supplanted by the theory that secondary 
education has its various functions to perform and higher 
education must take its origin at the point where the sec- 
ondary school leaves off. 

Assuming that the preparation of pupils for admission to 
higher institutions is a legitimate function of public secondary 
education, but that such propaedeutic function is subordi- 
nate to more general functions of secondary education, the 
problem of the relation of secondary education to higher 
education becomes a question largely of the amount and 
flexibility of college entrance requirements and the methods 
by which high-school graduates are selected for admission 
to the college or other higher institution. These factors are 
considered in some detail in following sections. 

II. College Admission Requirements 

129. Early requirements and changes. The earliest 
requirements for admission to college in America were lim- 
ited to the classical languages and literatures. During the 
eighteenth century in some cases the elements of arithme- 
tic were added to the requirements, at Yale as early as 1745. 
Up to the close of the eighteenth century Latin, Greek, and 
arithmetic were the only subjects required for admission 
to the existing American colleges. As long as the dominant 
function of the secondary school was conceived to be prep- 



RELATION TO fflGHER EDUCATION 315 

aration for college and as long as the college itself aimed 
toward a single uniform course of study with special refer- 
ence to training for the higher professions, little change was 
to be expected in the admission requirements. However, 
when the character and scope of secondary education was 
changed, as in the case of the academy and high-school 
movements, the enriched curriculum of the secondary school 
made it possible for the colleges to enlarge the scope of their 
admission requirements, and some of the newer subjects 
were added to those requirements, e.g., geography, algebra, 
geometry, and history. It is to be noted that the first 
change was one of increase in the amount and number 
of requirements rather than one of differentiation. In 
general, throughout the nineteenth centmy, there was a 
tendency to increase constantly the number of subjects 
and the amount of preparation required for entrance to 
college. 

While changes in the scope of the secondary school were 
occurring somewhat analogous changes were taking place 
in the colleges and universities. The nineteenth century 
brought with it new demands on the colleges as well as on 
the secondary school — demands for changes in the aims 
and functions of college education which finally resulted in 
differentiated courses of study and differentiated institu- 
tions. Throughout the seventeenth century the main pur- 
pose of the college was the training of ministers, more than 
two thirds of college graduates entering that profession. 
During the eighteenth century the proportion of graduates 
entering the ministry decreased while the proportions of 
those entering the professions of law and medicine increased, 
the three professions together attracting more than three- 
fifths of all college graduates during the eighteenth century 
and the first half of the nineteenth century. The period 
from about 1850 to the present has been one of constantly 



316 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



increasing differentiation of the college student body. 
These changes are clearly indicated in the following table. 

Table CVIII. The Distribution of College and Univer- 
sity Graduates: percents entering Various Profes- 
sions * 



Periods 


1 


1 


•8 

1 


a 
•S 

1 






1 


as 


Literature 

and 
journalism 


1 
1 


164J-1645.... 
1696-1700.... 
1746-1750.... 
1796-1800 .... 
1846-1850 .... 
1871-1875 .... 
1896-1900 .... 


70.0 
65.6 
37.9 
21.4 
23.1 
16.7 
5.9 


V.6 

7.6 
30.5 
25.8 
28.1 
15.6 


5.0 
3.1 

15.8 
8.4 

10.8 
8.5 
6.6 


5.0 

4.7 

4.2 

5.7 

10.1 

13.2 

26.7 


"l.'6 
9.2 
5.6 
10.0 
16.4 
18.8 


'9.4 

6.2 
1.1 
1.8 
1.2 
1.0 


".i 
1.5 

2.4 
3.5 


5.0 

2.5 

2.4 
2.9 

2.4 

.7 


.1 
1.9 
2.5 
1.1 


15.0 
14.7 
16.7 
24.7 
13.1 
8.4 
18.9 



* Burritt, B. B., Professional Distribution of College and University Graduates, Bureau of 
Education Bulletin (1912), no. 19, p, 144. The effect of the development of higher education 
for women may be observed in the proportion of college graduates becoming educators. 

With the introduction of differentiated courses in the 
college and with the development of special colleges, such 
as those for engineering and agriculture, there grew up differ- 
ent sets of admission requirements and a lack of uniformity 
therein. Eventually the variation in admission require- 
ments resulted in an intolerable burden on the secondary 
schools. 

130. The amount of preparation required. Recent at- 
tempts to secure a certain amount of uniformity and stand- 
ardization in college admission requirements have led to 
substantial agreement in defining those requirements in 
terms of "units." "A unit represents a year's study in any 
subject in a secondary school, constituting approximately 
a quarter of a full year's work." ^ This assumes that the 
length of the school year is from thirty-six to forty weeks, 
that a period is from forty to sixty minutes in length, and 
1 Bureau of Education Bulletin (1916), no. 20, p. 8. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 



317 



that the study is pursued for four or five periods a week; 
but under ordinary circumstances, a satisfactory year's 
work in any subject cannot be accompHshed in less than 
one hundred and twenty sixty-minute hours, or their equiv- 
alent.^ A large proportion of colleges and universities now 
state their requirements in terms of units as thus defined. 
Current practice regarding the amount of preparation re- 
quired by standard colleges for admission may be seen from 
the following table. 

Table CIX* 



Institutions 


Num- 
ber 


Number of units required 


14 


14.6 


15 


16.5 


16 


16.5 


17 


17.5 


Aver- 
age 


Colleges of liberal arts. . . . 
Colleges of engineering . . . 
Colleges of agriculture 


204 
85 
31 


39 

27 

9 


31 
6 

1 


116 
60 
21 


5 




12 
3 













1 




14.8 
14.7 
14.7 


Total 


320 


75 


37 


187 


5 


15 








1 


14.7 







* Kingsley, C. D., College Entrance Requirements, Bureau of Education Bulletin (1913), 
no. 7, p. 7. 

. It will be noted that one college only (Bryn Mawr) re- 
quires more work than can readily be accomplished by 
the high-school pupil in his four-year course. Hence, with 
respect to admission requirements, such difficulties as may 
be found in articulating the secondary school with the col- 
lege are to be found in the character and distribution of the 
units required rather than in the amount of preparation 
demanded. 

131. ** Prescribed," "Accepted," and "Elective" sub- 
jects. Much more important than the question of the 
amount of preparation for admission to college (where the 
amount is reasonable) is the question of the amount of ri- 
gidity or flexibility found in those requirements. When all 
* Bureau of Eucation Bulletia (1916), no, 20, p. 8. 



318 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

subjects required for admission to college were prescribed 
and the amounts of material to be mastered in those sub- 
jects were fixed, the secondary school which desired to fit 
any of its pupils for admission to college was under the 
necessity of determining its curriculum on the basis of the 
college admission requirements, to the detriment of those 
pupils not destined for a coUege education. Such rigidity, 
once the rule, no longer obtains. The oldest method was to 
prescribe definite subjects for admission to college and to 
demand specific amounts of those subjects of all candidates 
for admission. This was modified during the last haK of 
the nineteenth century in such a way as to prescribe defi- 
nite amounts of work in certain subject groups, — English, 
mathematics, foreign languages, science, and history, — 
but to permit the election of the particular language, sci- 
ence, and history. Later still this method was further mod- 
ified so that certain amounts of prescribed subjects were 
specified and other subjects allowed to be chosen from lists 
of "accepted subjects." Finally the method of admission 
has in some cases been so modified as to allow a "free 
margin" of "elective" subjects which may be chosen from 
any of the subjects accepted by an approved high school 
toward graduation. In a few cases the extreme form of this 
method has been adopted, allowing a free election of the 
entire fifteen units required. The practice of allowing a 
**free margin" is not, however, the rule in most colleges, 
and in general uniformity is lacking, in some cases subjects 
required by certain colleges not even being accepted in 
others of equal rank.^ 

132. The distribution of prescribed units. While there 
is wide variation in the manner in which prescribed units 
are distributed, there is also at present considerable uni- 
formity in the more essential elements involved and in 
* Kingsley, C. D., op. cit., pp. 17-18. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 819 

theory agreement is general that the high-school course, 
where preparation for admission to college is considered 
legitimate, should include at least three units of English, 
one of natural science, and one of social science. 

These five units, together with two or two and one half units of 
mathematics almost uniformly included constitute one half of the 
total number of units required for admission, and the prescription 
of these units has comparatively little effect in reducing flexibility 
except when the college specifies some particular science or epoch 
of history.^ 

In 1899 the Committee of Ten on College Entrance 
Requirements recommended that the following ten units 
should be included in the high-school course and in college 
entrance requirements: 

Four units in foreign language (no language accepted in less than 
two units), two units in mathematics, two in English, one in his- 
tory, and one in science.^ 

The recommendations of that committee did much to 
reduce the variability which had previously existed, but it 
failed to produce satisfactory conditions, largely because of 
the requirements in mathematics and the fact that many 
colleges required a greater amount of foreign language than 
that recommended by the committee. 

Certain features found in present conditions are worthy 
of note. In a study of 204 colleges of liberal arts Kingsley 
found that 10 colleges (in 1912) did not prescribe any par- 
ticular subject for graduates of fully approved high schools. 
All colleges that prescribed any subject prescribed English 
and in some cases English was the only subject prescribed. 
Every college that prescribed any subject other than Eng- 

* Kingsley, C. D., op. cit., p. 11. 

^ National Education Association. Report of Committee on College En- 
trance Requirements, p. 32. 



320 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

lish prescribed mathematics. In the case of foreign lan- 
guages was found the greatest variation in prescribed units. 
The present tendency is to reduce the amount of foreign 
language, both in high-school courses and in college admis- 
sion requirements and to permit a choice between ancient 
and modern languages. A student who can offer no Latin 
and only three units of German can meet the foreign-lan- 
guage requirements of 110 colleges of liberal arts and become 
a candidate for the Bachelor of Arts degree in 73 of those 
colleges. Out of 204 colleges of liberal arts 22 admit stu- 
dents without any language other than English. Only 94 out 
of 204 colleges of liberal arts prescribe any natural science 
for admission. History is prescribed by 163 of those colleges. 
Flexibility in the curriculum of the high school which 
must provide secondary education for those going to college 
and those not is greatly affected by the extent to which the 
colleges recognize as counting toward admission the various 
subjects commonly foimd in the high-school course. For 
1912 Kingsley gives the following table of subjects accepted 
by colleges of liberal arts as counting toward admission to 
the bachelor of arts course. 

Table CX. Number of such Colleges accepting 
Various Subjects tor Admission * 



Subjects 


No. 


Latin 


203 


Greek 


202 


German. . . 


197 


Physics 


196 


Chemistry . 


194 


French .... 


192 


Botany. . . . 


181 



Subjects 



Zoology 

Physiography 
Physiology. . 
Drawing. . . . 

Spanish 

Shop work. . . 
Economics. . . 



No. 



175 
174 
151 
124 
118 
97 
92 



Subjects 



Business 

Household economics 

Geology 

Music 

Astronomy 

Agriculture 

General science 



No. 



88 
79 
64 
62 
54 
80 
43 



(Others will consider subjects not commonly accepted.) 
* Kingsley, op. cit., p. 27. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 



321 



Current practice (1912) in the distribution of prescribed 
and elective units may be seen from the following table. 

Table CXI * 



Number of colleges considered . . , 

Prescribed units, average number 

English 

Mathematics 

Foreign language 

Natural Science 

Social Science 

Drawing 

Elective units, average number . . 

Required units, average number . 



Colleges 

of liberal 

arts 


Colleges 
of engi- 
neering 


Colleges 
of agri- 
culture 


203 


85 


31 


10.7 


10.1 


8.1 


2.9 


3.0 


2.9 


2.3 


3.1 


2.2 


4.0 


2.0 


1.2 


0.5 


1.0 


1.0 


1.0 


0.9 


0.8 


0.0 


0.1 


0.0 


4.1 


4.6 


6.6 


14.8 


14.7 


14.7 



Total 



319 

10.2 
2.9 
2.5 
3.1 
0.7 
0.9 
0.0 

4.5 

14.7 



* Compiled from data given by Kingsley, C. D., op. cit., pp. 28, 73, 89. 

It is to be noted from this table that the only require- 
ments likely to cramp the work of the high school in any 
important way are the requirements in EjigJiatj^ math^g - 
matics, and foreign language, and of these the most notice- 
able is the requirement iiTforeign languages for admission 
to the colleges of liberal arts or the *' general" college. In 
all three of these subject groups the problem centers largely 
around the necessity of so distributing the pupil's work in 
the secondary school that in some fields his education shall 
proceed beyond the elementary phases and at the same time 
that the pupil shall receive some insight into a variety of 
fields of knowledge and training. With unlimited election 
of subject for admission to college it is possible (where the 
secondary school permits) for the student entering college 
to have studied the elementary phases of a number of sub- 



822 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION' 

jects and never have carried his acquaintance with any one 
subject or group of subjects beyond the elementary or in- 
troductory stage. With recognition of the desirabihty of a 
certain amount of concentration in one or more fields, to- 
gether with a certain amount of distribution in other fields, 
there is a growing tendency for colleges to adapt admission 
requirements and for secondary schools to adapt courses of 
study so as to provide for such concentration and distribu- 
tion. This is obvious in the admission requirements of such 
colleges as the University of Chicago, Harvard University, 
etc., and in the recommendations of the Committee of the 
National Education Association on the Articulation of High 
School and College (1911). 

133. Recommendations of the Committee on Articula- 
tion. In 1910 a committee was appointed by the Secondary 
Department of the National Education Association to con- 
sider the problem of the articulation of the high school and 
college. The committee's report was accepted in 1911. The 
substance of that report is indicated by the recommenda- 
tions made regarding a well-planned high-school course.^ 

1. The quantitative requirement should be 15 units. The defini- 
tion of the unit there adopted is that given in Section 132 above. 

2. Every high-school course should include at least three units 
of English, one unit of social science (including history), and one 
unit of natural science. 

3. Every high-school course should include the completion of 
two majors of 3 units each and one minor of 2 units, and one of the 
majors should be English. The following subject groups are recom- 
mended as majors: three units of English; three units of mathe- 
matics; three units of one foreign language; three units of social 
science; three units of natural science. 

4. The requirement in mathematics and in foreign languages 
should not exceed 2 units in mathematics, and 2 units of one lan- 
guage other than English. 

1 Proceedings of the National Education Association (1911), pp. 559-67. 
Cf. Kingsley, op. cit., pp. 97-105. 



RELATION TO fflGHER EDUCATION 323 

5. Of the total 15 units, not less than 11 units should consist of 
.English, foreign language, mathematics, social science (including 
history), natural science, or other work conducted by recitations 
and home study. The other 4 units should be left as a margin to be 
used for additional academic work or for mechanic arts, household 
science, commercial work, and any other kind of work that the 
best interests of the student appear to require. 

4 (a). In place of either two units of mathematics or two units 
of foreign language, the substitution, under proper supervision, 
should be allowed of two units, consisting of a second unit of social 
science (including history) and a second unit of natural science. 

According to these recommendations three general group- 
ings would then be possible for the ten or eleven units in 
prescribed groups: 

Table CXH* 

A or B or C 

English 3 3 3 

Foreign language 2 2 

Mathematics 2 2 

Social science 1 2 2 

Natural science 1 2 2 

Total specified 9 9 9 

To be added to complete second major . 1 or 2 1 1 

Total 10 or 11 10 10 

* From the Supplementary Report of the Committee on Articulation, p. 566. Cf . Kingsley, 
op. cit., p. 104. 

It will be noted that the essential principle of this plan 
is the grouping of parts of subjects or of allied subjects with 
more or less freedom of choice within groups, thus provid- 
ing for consecutive and fairly advanced work in at least 
two or three fields, and still leaving sufficient freedom to 
allow flexibility in the work of the secondary school. 



BU PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

III. Methods of selecting Students for 
Admission to College 

134. Examination and certificating systems. Closely re- 
lated to the problems of subject requirements for admission 
to college are problems involved in the methods by which 
the selection is made of those who are fitted to take up the 
work of the college. The interest here enters on those prob- 
lems as affecting the work of the secondary school rather 
than as affecting the college. Historically the fitness of high- 
school graduates for admission to college, until within the 
past few decades, has always been tested by examinations. 
Around the system of examinations for admission to college 
there grew up a body of formality and machinery which seri- 
ously interfered with the transition of the student from one 
institution to the other, thus creating an important "break" 
in the system of education. Recognition of this "break" in 
our system of education and the rise of public State colleges 
and universities have led within the past few decades to the 
introduction and rapid development of "certificating" or 
"accrediting" systems, whereby successful work accom- 
plished in the high school is assumed to be an adequate indi- 
cation of fitness for admission to college. The operation of 
the two different systems and its effect on the work of the 
secondary school are deserving of consideration. 

135. Examination methods in practice. As long as the 
early colleges in this country drew their students from 
secondary schools where there was little opportunity for 
close observation of the work done, and as long as there ex- 
isted little uniformity in the character of the work done in 
those schools, the examination system was the only method 
possible for selecting candidates who were fit for college 
work. With the increase in the number of colleges with vary- 
ing requirements and with varying forms of examination 



RELATION TO fflGHER EDUCATION 325 

considerable confusion arose, and the difficulties of prepara- 
tion and of selection became great. To meet those difficul- 
ties a number of methods were adopted looking toward uni- 
formity and the simplification of the system of examinations. 
Among these the most important from the view of exami- 
nations was the establishment of the College Entrance Ex- 
amination Board in 1900. Originally the aim of this board 
was to provide uniform examinations for all candidates for 
admission to the colleges which formed the association. It 
has resulted in the establishment of an examination system 
the results of which are accepted for admission to practically 
every college in the country although in practice the major- 
ity of those who take the examinations enter colleges in the 
North Atlantic States and come from those States. In the 
first examinations conducted by the board less than one 
thousand candidates were examined. In 1915 nearly five 
thousand candidates were examined. Further examples of 
centralized examination systems, though differing widely 
from that mentioned above, are found in the Examinations 
conducted by the Board of Regents in New York State, and 
to some extent in the systems of Minnesota and Florida. 

An important modification of the examination system was 
made when several colleges adopted the plan in whole or in 
part of testing candidates by means of "comprehensive" 
examinations designed to test the power of the candidate 
rather than specific and detailed accomplishment in certain 
subjects. The character of such examinations and their 
bearing on the work of the secondary school may be seen 
from the substance of a memorandum presented to the Col- 
lege Entrance Examination Board: 

To be most useful the new comprehensive papers must be 
adapted: (1) to such variety of school instruction as exists in the 
several subjects — that is, they must not prescribe methods, but 
must recognize the general principle that the schools determine 



S26 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

how they shall teach a subject and that the College tests results or 
power; (2) to different stages of training in the subjects in which 
they are set — that is, they must give boys opportunity to show 
their power whether they have had the minimum or the maximum 
amount of training given in school.^ 

* The adoption of such a plan for comprehensive examina- 
tions (in addition to the ordinary examination) by the 
College Entrance Examination Board in 1916 permits 
greater flexibility in the work of the secondary school 
wherever advantage is taken of the opportunity. 

136. Advantages and disadvantages of examinations. Ex- 
aminations must always be necessary when no other ade- 
quate means exist whereby the fitness of candidates can be 
determined. In the majority of cases, however, examina- 
tions cannot be justified on the ground of necessity only. 
Among the claims that are made of the advantages of the 
examination system are the following: (1) that the examina- 
tion is the best test of the candidate's fitness; (2) that 
examinations afford an opportunity and impelling stimulus 
to reorganize as a whole material previously studied; (3) that 
examinations stimulate the endeavor of the boy or girl in 
high-school work by offering a definite objective point; 
(4) that examinations afford training in meeting crises. In 
the case of college entrance examinations the last claimed 
advantage may be ignored on the ground that any one of 
two sets of examination are inadequate to produce the train- 
ing claimed. The second and third advantages claimed un- 
doubtedly possess some validity, though it may be noted 
in connection with the second that the organization of 
material in review is a matter of method not necessarily in- 
volving examinations. In connection with the third claim 
it may be noted that certain evils are also involved. 

1 College Entrance Examination Board, Fifteenth Annual Report of the 
Secretary (1915), pp. 4-5. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 327 

To all these possible advantages claimed for the examina- 
tion method must be opposed many disadvantages. It may- 
be noted first that single tests commonly do not indicate 
the true status of an individual with regard to any single 
mental trait, much less with regard to the complex mental 
traits involved in any subject such as forms the basis of the 
college-entrance examinations. The true status of an indi- 
vidual in any mental trait is to be determined by a number 
of separate measurements. In the second place the varia- 
bility of judgments and the personal equation of the markers 
enter largely into the interpretation of the ability manifested 
by the examinee, as has been shown clearly by the investiga- 
tions of Starch and EUiott and others.^ Thus in marking the 
same examination paper the grading of one marker may 
differ from that of another to such an extent as to invalidate 
completely the gradings of a large number of candidates. 
The present writer found in the case of thirteen geometry 
papers marked by thirteen readers of the College Entrance 
Examination Board ranges as large as twenty-seven and 
thirty-three points on a percentile scale between the highest 
and the lowest markers of the same paper, and an average 
deviation as high as 5.57 per cent from the central tendency 
of the marks assigned. The average deviation for the thir- 
teen markers grading thirteen papers for the Board was 3.69 
points on a percentile scale. ^ 

In the third place, it may be noted that the examinations 
as usually conducted fail to determine with even a fair degree 

1 Starch, D., and Elliott, E. C, "The Reliability of Grading Work in 
English," School Review, vol. xx, pp. 442-57; same, "History," ibid., vol. 
XXI, pp. 676-81; same, "Mathematics," ibid., vol. xxi, pp. 254-59. Cf. 
Starch, D., "Reliability and Distribution of Grades," Science, vol. xxxvin, 
pp. 630-36; same. Educational Measurements, pp. 3-15. Cf. Kelly, F. J., 
Teachers' Marks, pp. 51-84. 

2 It should be stated that the figures were secured before the markers 
had "standardized" their marking system and hence are higher than the 
final variability. ,/ 



328 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of accuracy the fitness of candidates to do college work. 
Here the results of Thorndike's investigation are in point. ^ 
Thorndike compared the standings of students on examina- 
tion for entrance to Columbia University with their stand- 
ings while in college. The results of his investigation showed 
that success in college work cannot be estimated from suc- 
cess in the entrance examinations 

with enough accuracy to make the entrance examinations worth 
taking or to prevent gross and intolerable injustice from being done 
to many individuals. For instance, 6 out of the 130 received the 
same average entrance mark — 61. In their college work of junior 
year, 1 averaged a trifle above D; 1 half-way from D to C; one a 
little above C; and 2 received A in four subjects out of five, and 
B in the other. In freshman and sophomore year, the range was 
nearly as great. . . . 

It is certain that the traditional entrance examinations, even 
when as fully safeguarded as in the case of those given by the Col- 
lege Entrance Examination Board, do not prevent incompetents 
from getting into college; do not prevent students of excellent 
promise from being discouraged, improperly conditioned or barred 
out altogether; do not measure fitness for college well enough to 
earn the respect of students or teachers; and do intolerable injus- 
tice to individuals. 

On the other hand, Jones maintains relatively high corre- 
lations between the standing of students on entrance exami- 
nations and in the freshman year of college, basing his con- 
clusions on such figures as are shown in Table CXIII. 

The defects of the examination system considered above 
have to do largely with the question from the standpoint of 
the college or the entire system of education. Further de- 
fects are claimed to be involved from the standpoint of the 
secondary school. Most important among these is the fact 
that examinations tend to set up a formal and artificial goal 

1 Thorndike, E. L., "The Future of the College Entrance Examination 
Board," Educational Review, vol. xxxi, pp. 470-83; Strayer, G. D., and 
Thorndike, E. L.> Educational Administration, pp. 176-87. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 



329 



Table CXIII. The Relation of Students* Standestg on 
Entrance Examination and in the Freshman Year of 
College * 



On entrance examinations in 



Highest quarter (50 men) 

Next to highest quarter (50 men) 
Next to lowest quarter (50 men) . 
Lowest quarter (50 men) 



Freshman year in college in 



Highest 
quarter 



30 

16 

3 

1 



Next to 
highest 
quarter 



13 
17 
13 

7 



Next to 
lowest 
quarter 



5 
12 
16 
17 



Lowest 
quarter 



2 

5 

18 

25 



* Cf. Jones, A. L., "Entrance Examinations ai^d College Records," Educational Review, 
vol. XLvm, pp. 10&-22. 

for secondary-school pupils, who look forward to entering 
college. The narrow minimum demands for college entrance 
tend to become the principal aim of the college-preparatory 
work of the secondary school and to influence the other 
work of the school in a way unfavorable to high standards 
of real attainment. The securing of *' points" or " credits" 
becomes the aim rather than the attainment of knowledge 
or training; the methods of study and teaching are ex- 
tensively affected by the possibility of "cramming," and 
consistent, steady work day by day receives little en- 
couragement when the pupil feels that all will depend on 
examinations. The introduction of " comprehensive " exami- 
nations will doubtless tend to reduce these evils. 

137. The certificating or accrediting system. The period 
following the Civil War was noticeably a period of rapid 
development in public systems of education and in State 
colleges and universities. Where such State systems included 
public colleges and universities there existed a situation 
favorable to the development of closer articulation between 



330 PKINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the secondary schools and the colleges, and out of such situ- 
ations developed the system of admitting students to col- 
lege through a certijScating or accrediting system on the 
basis of satisfactory completion of the high-school course. 
One of the first institutions to adopt the certificating system 
was the University of Michigan in 1871. In 1873 the State 
Board of Education of Indiana and Indiana University 
adopted regulations which practically initiated a State- wide 
system of accrediting high schools, the administration of 
that system being in the hands of the Board of Education. 
The movement commended itself to school and college 
authorities throughout the country, though most extensively 
in the West and Middle West, and by 1895 forty-two State 
universities and one hundred and fifty other institutions had 
adopted the accrediting system in some form.^ At the pres- 
ent time the accrediting system is recognized by nearly all 
colleges and universities in the country, the only important 
exceptions being a few prominent universities (e.g., Har- 
vard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Bryn Mawr) in the East.^ 
These have adopted certain elements of the certificating 
system in combination with the admission examinations. 

138. The advantages and disadvantages of the accrediting 
system. The prime question regarding the accrediting sys- 
tem as a means whereby candidates may be admitted to col- 
lege is: Does it admit the fit and exclude the unfit .^ The 
answer to this question in theory is that a judgment based 
on all the work done by a boy or girl for four years in the 
secondary school would appear to be the most reliable. 
Do results in practice accord with this theory.? It would 
appear that they do. Dearborn compared the school and 
college standing of 472 students who entered the Univer- 

^ Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1894-95), vol. n, 
pp. 1171-88. 

2 Since this was written the majority of women's colleges of New 
England have reverted to the examination system. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 831 

sity of Wisconsin on certificate in 1900 to 1905. He found 
that 

pupils tend to maintain in the university the same relative rank 
which they held in the high school. ... Of the 472 pupils, only five 
who stood in the lowest quarter of the group on entrance, suc- 
ceeded in reaching the rank of the first quarter (during the fresh- 
man year), and they secured only the lowest grade in that quarter; 
similarly, but five of those who entered in the first quarter of this 
large group, dropped to the lowest quarter during the freshman 
year; and they stood in the highest grade of this quarter. These 
results seem remarkable when we contrast them with the notions, 
often current, of the extent of reversal which the freshman year of 
the university makes in the careers of high school students.^ 

Dearborn further found a correlation of more than eighty 
per cent for the standing of students in the high school and 
in the freshman year of the college. ^ Numerous other 
studies have indicated much the same facts as those sug- 
gested by Dearborn's study. Thus Smith secured the data 
presented in the Table CXIV, showing the retention in the 
college of students belonging to different scholarship groups 
in the high school. 

Essentially the same results were found by Pettit.^ 
Clement's investigation discloses the fact that from 75 to 80 
per cent of pupils were found in the same tertile of the total 
groups in high school and college.^ 

Even more conclusive were the results of Lincoln's study 
of the relative standing of students in the freshman and 
sophomore years at Harvard College, in the high school, and 
on entrance examinations. His findings indicate that where 
the same individuals are concerned the standing of those 

^ Dearborn, W. F., The Relative Standing of Pupils in the High School and 
in the University, pp. 17, 19. 

2 Ibid., p. 21. 

' Pettit, W. W., A Comparative Study of New York High School and 
Columbia College Grades. 

* Clement, J. A., Standardization of the Schools of Kansas, p. 129, 



332 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table CXIV. Retention in Scholarship Groups in the 
College of Pupils who were in Different Scholarship 
V Groups in High School * 



In high-school work 



Highest quintile 
Second quintile. 
Third quintile. . 
Fourth quintile. 
Lowest quintile. 





In the college 


work 


Highest 


Second 


Third 


Fourth 


quintile 


quintile 


quintile 


quintile 


(.per 


{per 


{per 


{per 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


54 


17 


17 


4 


25 


29 


17 


13 


17 


25 


20 


21 





25 


25 


33 


4 


4 


21 


29 



Lowest 

quintile 

{per 

cent) 



8 
16 

17 
17 

42 



Table shoxild be read thus: of pupils who were in the highest quintile in the high school 
fifty-four per cent were in the highest quintile in college. Seventeen per cent dropped to the 
second quintile, etc. 

* Smith, F. 0., A Rational Basis for Determining Fitness fqf College Entrance. 



Table CXV. Correlations of Standings op Students in 
College, in the High School, and on Entrance Exami- 
'^- nations * 



Freshman-year college work and high-school work . 
Freshman-year college work and examinations .... 

Sophomore-year college work and high-school work 
Sophomore-year college work and examinations . . . 

Examinations and high-school work . , 




Probable 
error 



.02 
.03 

.02 
.04 

.03 



* Lincoln, E. A., "The Relative Standing of Pupils in High School, in Early College, and 
on College Entrance ExaminatioQs,'|_ School and Society, vol. v, pp. 417-20. (Pearson co- 
efficient employed.) 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 333 

students in their high-school work as measured by the aver- 
age grades received therein would have been one and a half 
times as reliable an index of their ability to do the work of 
the freshman year in college as were their standings on the 
entrance examinations. His figures are given in Table CXV. 

The special value of these figures is found in the fact that 
they permit a direct comparison between the reliability of 
high-school grades and entrance-examination grades as 
measures of the ability of the same students to do college 
work of the freshman and sophomore years. 

In the above discussion emphasis has been placed on the 
benefits which the college is claimed to derive from the adop- 
tion of a certificating system. No less benefits are claimed 
for the secondary school. These have been emphasized by 
Brown as follows : 

It would be hard to overestimate the good already accomplished 
by the accrediting system, in spite of all defects. It has given to 
communities a means, which had been lacking, of discovering the 
deficiencies, and likewise, the excellences of their schools. It has 
greatly aided the better principals and teachers in their efforts to 
maintain high standards of scholarship. It has quickened the 
intellectual life of schools and of whole communities, by the imme- 
diate touch of university ideals. In some States, as in Missouri, it 
has virtually called into being a new and better and more general 
provision for secondary education, within a very few years. In 
some States, under its influence, the improvement of the teaching 
in such schools has gone forward at an unprecedented rate.^ 

By no means the least advantage resulting from the adop- 
tion of the accrediting system is to be found in the fact 
that it has brought into closer and better coordination the 
secondary school and the college by removing one of the 
greatest barriers between the two institutions. 

The accrediting system has its merits. It also has its seri- 

1 Brown, E. E., The Making of Our Middle Schools, pp. 376-77. Quoted 
with the permission of the publishers, Longmans, Green & Co. 



834^ PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ous disadvantages. The first of these is found in the fact that 
it can never completely meet the needs of the situation. The 
very character of the system and the necessity of maintain- 
ing standards make it necessary that some schools must be 
denied the certificating privilege. Yet some pupils who are 
worthy of admission to college will always be found in such 
schools. The accrediting system must always select pupils 
according to schools: the examination emphasizes selection 
by individuals. Hence some form of examination for some 
students must always supplement the accrediting system. 
The second defect in the accrediting system is found in the 
diflaculty of its administration, especially with reference to 
the supervision or inspection of the work of the secondary 
schools — a provision which is necessary if standards are to 
be maintained. In such supervision or inspection ot the 
secondary schools by the colleges it is to be noted that there 
is always danger that undue control over the work of the 
high schools may be exercised and that many evils now 
perpetuated by the dominance of the college over the 
secondary school may be continued. 

139. Methods of administering the accrediting system. 
In general two different methods of administering the cer- 
tificating or accrediting system are found, the essential 
difference between the two being found in the methods em- 
ployed for determining the selection of secondary schools 
to which the accrediting privilege should be granted. 

(i) The New England College Entrance Certificate Board : 
This board was established in 1902 for the purpose of creat- 
ing a certificate "clearing house" for the colleges of New 
England. In general the standing of the secondary school 
and the character of the work done in any given school is 
determined by that board on the basis of the accomplish- 
ment in college of graduates who are certificated from that 
school. According to the success or failure of such certifi- 



RELATION TO fflGHER EDUCATION S35 

cated graduates the certificating privilege is granted or 
withdrawn from any given school. The advantage of the 
method is found in the simpHcity with which it can be 
administered. The defects are found in the possible unfair- 
ness in determining the character of any school on the basis 
of a few scattered representatives of the school and in the 
fact that it encourages weak schools to retain their standing 
with the certificating board by refusing certificates to any 
but the best pupils. Dissatisfaction with the method is not 
unknown among the secondary schools of New England and 
at least one New England College. It is to be noted also 
that the method provides for little cooperation between the 
college and the secondary school which may improve the 
work of the latter. 

\ {2) The inspection method. In the majority of States in the 
country the standing of the secondary school with reference 
to the granting or the withholding of the accrediting priv- 
ilege is determined on the basis of the character of the work 
done in such schools as ascertained from the inspection and 
supervision of them by college officers, State officials, or 
commission representatives. Such is the method adopted 
by numerous State colleges and universities, by State boards 
of education, and such general commissions as the Commis- 
sion on Accredited Schools of the North Central States 
(established in 1901 by the North Central Association of 
Colleges and Secondary Schools), etc. The merits of the 
inspection system are found in the close relations which 
they have developed in such States between colleges and 
secondary schools, the intimate acquaintance with problems 
of public secondary education gained by college representa- 
tives, the upbuilding influence of the college on the school, 
and the success of the method in determining the fitness 
of graduates for college work. The defects of the method 
are those involved in the difficulties of providing effective 



336 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

inspection and supervision in some territories and the amount 
of administrative machinery required effectively to carry 
out the plan. These diflSculties are great. Nevertheless, 
they have been met with satisfactory results in general, par- 
ticularly in the Middle West, and with improved organiza- 
tion and administration the difficiilties inherent in the plan 
should not prove unsurmountable. 

In this connection two suggested schemes are worthy of 
mention. Both arise out of the operation of existing systems 
in cases where the college and the secondary school are geo- 
graphically distant. The first is that suggested by Thorn- 
dike, who recommended in 1906 that the College Entrance 
Examination Board assume the added function of a clearing- 
house for certificates, the accrediting being based on the 
actual success in college of the students endorsed by each 
secondary school.^ The advantages of such a plan are 
obvious, but no action has ever been taken. The second 
suggestion is that of Henderson, who recommended that the 
National Association of State Universities appoint a Com- 
mission to control the matter of accrediting. ^ Previously, 
Broome had suggested that desirable conditions for the wide 
use of the accrediting system could come only with the exist- 
ence of a national board of inspectors for secondary schools.^ 
Meanwhile, the difficulty of a college determining the sta- 
tus of any secondary school situated at a distance has been 
somewhat relieved by the publication of lists of accredited 
schools prepared from lists of various independent accred- 
iting bodies.^ 

^ Strayer, G. D., and Thorndike, E. L., Educational Administration, -pp, 
176-87. 

2 Henderson, J. L., Admission to College by Certificate, pp. 165-66. 

^ Broome, E. C, op. cit:, p. 125. 

* Published at intervals by the Bureau of Education. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 337 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. To what extend have the functions of the college and university changed 
within the past half-century or so? How have those changes affected 
the work of the secondary school and its relation to higher institutions? 

2. Compare the articulation of the secondary school and college or univer- 
sity in Germany, France, England, and America. 

3. To what extent do the curricula of the public secondary school and the 
college overlap? 

4. Compare the articulation of the public secondary school and the State 
college or* university with the articulation of the public secondary 
school and the private college or university. 

6. Compare the proportion of high-school graduates going to college in 
States where the leading college is public and in States where the lead- 
ing college or coUeges are private. Compare also the high school popu- 
lations in those States. (Cf . Report of the United States Commissioner of 
Education (1914), vol. ii, pp. 416, 415, 411.) 

6. Study the historical development of college admission requirements in 
English, mathematics, or foreign languages. 

7. Compare the college entrance requirements of: (a) Harvard, Princeton, 
Yale, Columbia; (6) the University of Chicago, the University of 
Michigan, the University of California, Amherst College. (Cf . Kings- 
ley, C. D., reference in following bibliography.) 

8. Study the requirements for entrance to public normal schools. What 
' relation do they have to the public secondary school? 

9. Compare more in detail the advantages and defects of the examination 
system and the accrediting system of admission to college, with special 
reference to their effect on the public secondary school. 

10. Compare the certificating systems of the Commission on Accredited 
Schools of the North Central States and of the New England College 
Entrance Certificating Board, with special reference to their effect on 
the public secondary school. 

11. What are the merits and demerits of the junior college? 

12. For any given secondary school or group of secondary schools compare 
the relative standing in school and college of its graduates. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Note: The literature dealing with the relation between secondary edu- 
cation and higher education is so voluminous that any extended bibliog- 
raphy is here impossible. Hence there are included below such references 
only as (a) represent somewhat comprehensive treatments of the field; 
(6) the carefully considered reports of various organizations, committees, 
departments of education, etc. ; (c) special articles dealing with most recent 
phases of the topic; (d) articles and reports dealing with actual experiments 
and investigations. 



338 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

I. General treatment: 

Broome, E. C, A Historical and Critical Discussion of College En- 
trance Requirements. 

HoUister, H. A., High School Administration, chap. xiii. 

Kingsley, C. D., The Relation of the High Schools to Higher Educa- 
tional Institutions. 

Mooney, W. B., "The Relation of Secondary Schools to Higher 
Schools in the United States," Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xxni, 
pp. 387-416. 
II. Reports of committees, organizations, etc.: 

National Education Association, Report of Committee on College 
Entrance Requirements, Proceedings (1899), pp. 632-817. Also 
published separately by the Association. 

National Education Association, Report of the Committee of Ten on 
Secondary School Studies, published separately by the Bureau of 
Education and also by the American Book Company. 

National Education Association, Report of the Committee on the 
Articulation of High School and College, Proceedings of the Associ- 
ation (1911), pp. 559-67. Also published, pp. 97-105 of Bulletin 
(1913) no. 7 of the Bureau of Education. 

National Education Association, Report of Committee on Economy of 
Time in Education, Proceedings (1914), pp. 206-22. Also published 
separately in Bulletin (1913) no. 38, of the Bureau of Education. 

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Reports, 
1906-, especially vol. iv. (1909) and vol. v (1910). 

College Entrance Examination Board, Reports of the Secretary. 

New England College Entrance Certificate Board, Report of the Sec- 
retary. 

Commission on Accredited Schools of the North Central States, 
Reports. 
Ill Special articles: 

Angell, J. R., "The Junior College Movement in High Schools," 
School Review, vol. xxiii, pp. 289-302. 

California, State Board of Education, Report of the Commissioner of 
Secondary Schools (1914), pp. 20-23 ("Junior Colleges in Cali- 
fornia"). 

Gray, A. A., "The Junior College in California," School Review, 
vol. XXIII, pp. 465-73. 

Henderson, J. L., Admission to College by Certificate. 

Holland, E. O., Pennsylvania State Normal Schools and Puhlio 
School System. 

Lange, A. F., "A Junior College Department of Civic Education," 
School and Society, vol. ii, pp. 442-48. 

McLane, C. L., "The Junior College, or Upward Extension of the 
High School," School Review, vol. xxi, pp. 161-70. 



RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 339 

IV. Special studies and investigations: 

Bureau of Education Bulletins, Accredited Secondary Schools in the 
United States (1913), no. 29; (1915), no. 7; (1916), no. 20. 

Burritt, B. B., The Professional Distribution of College and University 
Graduates, Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1912) no. 19. 

Clement, J. A., Standardization of the Schools of Kansas, Doctor's 
Dissertation, University of Chicago. (High-school and college 
standings.) 

Dearborn, W. F., The Relative Standing of Pupils in the High School 
and in the University, Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin no. 
312. 

Hollingworth, H. L., Vocational Psychology, chap. viii. 

Inglis, A. J., "High School Graduates and Preparation for Higher 
Institutions," School and Society, vol. i, pp. 932-34. 

Inglis, A. J., "The Distribution of Pupils in the Public High 
Schools," Educational Review, vol. xlvi, pp. 344-50. 

Jones, A. L., "Entrance Examinations and College Records: A 
Study in Correlation," Educational Review, vol. xlviii, pp. 109-22. 

Kellicott, W. E., "College Entrance Requhements and College 
Standards," School and Society, vol. ii, pp. 29-36. 

Kelly, F. J., Teachers' Marks: Their Variability and Standardization, 
especially pp. 11-84. 

Kingsley, CD., College Entrance Requirements, Bureau of Educa- 
tion Bulletin (1913) no. 7. 

Lincoln, E. A., "The Relative Standing of Pupils in High School, 
in Early College, and on College Entrance Examination," 
School and Society, vol. v, pp. 417H120. 

North Central Association (of Colleges and Secondary Schools), 
A Study of the Colleges and High Schools in. Bureau of Education, 
Bulletin (1915) no. 6. 

Pittinger, B. F., "The EflEiciency of College Students as Condi- 
tioned by Age at Entrance and Size of High School," Sixteenth 
Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 
part II. 

Smith, F. O., A Rational Basis for Determining Fitness for College 
Entrance, University of Iowa, Studies in Education, vol. i, no. 3. 

Starch, D., Educational Measurement, chap. n. Cf. also Science, vol. 
xxxvni, pp. 630-36. 

Thorndike, E. L., "The Future of the College Entrance Examina- 
tion Board," Educational Review, vol. xxxi, pp. 470-83. Also in 
Strayer, G. D., and Thorndike, E. L., Educational Administraiion, 
pp. 176-87. 

Extended bibliography: Walkley, R. L., Bibliography of the Relation 
of Secondary Education to Higher Education, Bureau of Education, 
Bulletin (1914) no. 32. 



CHAPTER IX 

SOCUL PRINCIPLES DETERMINING SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 

140. Some underlying assumptions. Social theory must 
always furnish the basis whereon are established conceptions 
of the functions which education should perform. The social 
theory underlying the considerations adduced in this chap- 
ter involves certain assumptions the substantiation of which 
cannot be attempted here. Among those assumptions the 
more fundamental are the following. 

(1) Society is to be conceived as in evolutionary process. 
In that process are involved the two factors of integration 
and differentiation, the former working toward social co- 
hesion and solidarity, the latter working toward variation 
and modification. 

(2) There is an essential congruity of interest between the 
individual and society. The possibility of the development 
of the individual is found in his participation in social activ- 
ities and in the social consciousness. The possibility of the 
development of society is found in the development of 
social personalities in individuals. 

(3) The school is to be considered as a social institution 
or agency maintained by society for the purpose of assisting 
in the maintenance of its own stability and in the direction 
of its own progress. 

, 141. Secondary education as a social institution. If the 

school is to be looked on as an institution established, main- 

1 tained, and controlled by society for the purpose of maintain- 

(ing its own stability and determining the direction of its own 

)rogress, secondary education, as a part (and as a part only) 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 341 

of a general system of education, must be conceived as de- 
termined fundamentally by its functions as a social agency. 
Looked at from this point of view secondary education 
involves a number of important social principles some of 
which may be formulated here and considered further in 
following sections. 

(1) The character and purposes of secondary education 
at any time and in any society must conform to the dom- 
inant ideals and to the form of social organization of that 
society. 

(2) The dynamic character of the social process requires 
the constant readjustment of secondary education to the 
changing demands of society. 

(3) The nature of social evolution involves the two sup- 
plementary factors of integration and differentiation, both 
of which must be recognized properly in secondary educa- 
tion. 

(4) Whenever any other social institution fails to provide 
forms of education socially desirable the school should 
assume responsibility for those forms of education as far 
as may be possible. Whenever such forms of education are 
appropriate to the age and grade of secondary education, 
the secondary school should assume responsibility for them. 
Conversely, whenever other social agencies provide ade- 
quately for forms of education socially desirable the school 
should not attempt to assume responsibility for them. 

142. Social ideals and social organization. In discussing 
the historical development of secondary education the point 
was emphasized that the efficiency of the secondary school 
is to be measured in terms of the degree in which it conforms 
and contributes to the dominant social ideals and form of 
social organization at any particular time. In discussing 
systems of secondary education in different countries the 
point was emphasized that the efficiency of the secondary 



S42 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

school is to be measured according to the dominant social 
ideals and the form of social organization peculiar to each 
country. In the present section the principles of education 
involved may be considered with special reference to the 
social ideals and social organization of the American Democ- 
racy. 

To state that the American secondary school should con- 
form to the democratic ideals and the democratic organiza- 
tion of Amercan society is to state a platitude. The impli- 
cations of such a statement, however, are not always clearly 
perceived and may bear further consideration. Three im- 
portant implications invite attention. 

(1) Efficient membership in American society demands at 
least three qualifications: (a) an ability effectively to execute 
the formal and informal duties of citizenship and carry the 
burden of political responsibility; (6) an ability to produce 
and labor sufficiently to carry one's own economic load; 
(c) an ability to utilize one's leisure time and act in an in- 
dividual capacity without interfering with the interests of 
others or of society at large. In certain societies where 
other social ideals are dominant it is possible for many of the 
privileges and responsibilities of citizenship to be preroga- 
tives of special groups. In some forms of society it is possi- 
ble for economic production to rest principally on certain 
groups. In certain forms of society opportunities for the 
enjoyment of leisure are open to different groups in degrees 
determined by social ideals which greatly limit certain indi- 
viduals or groups. In the American democracy the three 
forms of activity must be considered as important for every 
citizen in so far as his individual capacity and circumstances 
permit. It follows, therefore, not only that educational 
opportunity, including secondary education, should be uni- 
versal in America, but also that these three phases of activity 
must be conceived as necessary parts of the education due 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 343 

every individual and that in the secondary school each of 
the three phases should receive attention in due proportion. 
Failure to recognize this principle in the past has led to 
over-emphasis on certain phases of secondary education and 
the comparative neglect of others. This is particularly no- 
ticeable in the comparative neglect until recently of the 
preparation of the worker in the American secondary school. 
Over-emphasis in the other direction for some pupils is a 
not impossible tendency in some quarters at the present 
time. 

(2) It must be recognized that in American society each 
individual must be not merely a law-abiding citizen but also 
to some extent a law-making citizen. It must further be 
recognized that the minimum level of general intelligence 
necessary in any society must depend on the amount of 
privilege conferred on the individual and the amount of 
responsibility placed on him. In a society where for the 
majority of individuals the great necessity is conformance 
to imposed demands, a much lower level of general intelli- 
gence is required than in a society where the individual must 
not only conform to social demands but also determine in 
part what those demands shall be. Further, it must be 
recognized that with the constantly growing complexity of 
modern social and economic life the amount of intelligence 
and training necessary to meet its privileges and responsi- 
bilities is much greater than at any former time. An educa- 
tion which was adequate for the needs of a simpler social 
organization cannot be adequate for the needs of a more 
complex society. Consequently it has become a serious 
problem in this country whether steps should not be taken 
to provide that a larger proportion of prospective members 
of American society should receive the beneiSts of education 
beyond the elementary school. The increased privileges 
and responsibilities granted to and demanded of the indi- 



SU I PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION! 

vidual in American society cannot be provided for by a sys- 
tem which gives two thirds of the citizens not more than an 
elementary education. The comphcated social problems of 
modern civic and industrial life and of individual conduct 
cannot be understood and intelligently attacked by a peo- 
ple, two thirds of whom have received elementary instruc- 
tion only and of which on the average individuals have re- 
ceived much less than one thousand days of schooling each. 
Unless the average amount of education received can be 
markedly increased the further development of American 
democracy must be seriously conditioned if not actually 
imperiled. The problem is one affecting most secondary 
education in the public schools. 

(3) The participation of all citizens in the direction and 
control of all social institutions of a public nature includes 
a participation in the direction and control of the school as 
well as of other institutions. The agency on which democ- 
racy must most depend is one which democracy must itself 
determine and control. Even more than in most societies 
the American secondary school must conform to social ideals 
and the form of social organization. 

143. Social evolution and educational adjustment. It is 
an obvious fact that as time passes society changes and the 
demands of the social organization are more or less modified. 
If it be recognized that the process of the development of 
social organization is evolutionary and that secondary edu- 
cation must conform to the dominant social ideals and form 
of social organization, we must conceive that secondary edu- 
cation must constantly be readapted to meet the changing 
needs of the society which it serves. Commonly such 
changes in social ideals and in the form of social organiza- 
tion as demand changes in secondary education develop 
gradually and consequently involve no great reorganiza- 
tion of secondary education at any one time if the latter is 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 345 

gradually modified to meet the gradual changes in society. 
Institutions, however, and secondary education no less than 
any other institution, once firmly established, tend con- 
stantly to become more and more conservative and resist- 
ent of change — a characteristic which is a safeguard and 
at the same time a defect. Hence it is that important social 
changes, readily perceived and evaluated in historical retro- 
spect, have seldom been clearly perceived by contemporary 
authorities and have seldom been met by appropriate 
changes in secondary education. As a result the cumulated 
effect of necessary changes in secondary education long de- 
ferred has commonly led to extensive reorganization at irreg- 
ular intervals. This was the case in the development of the 
academy in America when the Latin grammar school was 
not adaptedvto meet contemporary demands of society, in 
the development of the public high school, and is to be 
observed in the present demand for the reorganization of 
secondary education calling for radical changes to meet the 
accumulated evils of existing schools. 

No less important than the factor of absolute change in 
social ideals and social organization is the factor of the rate 
of change therein involved. The rate of development in 
most lines of social activity has been much more rapid 
within the past half -century or so than at any correspond- 
ing period of the past. Likewise development had been 
much more rapid in this country than in most others. At 
the present time in this country the rate of change in all 
phases of our social organization is rapid, and apparently 
the rate of change is likely to be rapid for some time to 
come. The recent tendencies in social development indicate 
clearly that present conditions will in all probability change 
in important ways within the life of the generation which is 
at present being prepared for membership in our society. 
IThere is a sense in which it is true that the educational proc- 



846 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ess must be at least a generation behind the stage of society 
for which it is designed to prepare.y To reduce that discrep- 
ancy as much as possible must be involved in any scheme 
for adapting secondary education to social needs. It requires 
but a slight examination to note that the activities of the 
present day call for some knowledges and skills that could 
not have been foreseen by those responsible, for secondary 
education ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago^In the field of 
civic duties are such factors as the initiative and ref- 
erendum, the recall of public officials, commission govern- 
ment, direct primaries, governmental-industrial relation- 
ships, female suffrage, and a multitude of other civic 
duties and civic problems specific preparation for which 
could not have been afforded in the secondary- school for 
those who are now called upon to meet themCj^n the field 
of industry a multitude of new processes and new activi- 
ties have developed within the past decade or so which the 
secondary school could not have provided for even if it 
had tupned its attention to vocational education exten- 
sively .\J^n the field of individual activity new opportuni- 
ties for the individual's enjoyment have opened up within 
recent years for which the secondary education of fifteen 
years ago could not have established standards of conduct 
except in the most general way. We may be just as sure that 
equally important and extensive changes will face the pupils 
in our secondary schools at the present time which we cannot 
now foresee and for which, therefore, we can provide no 
specific preparation. 

The obvious implication of this factor of the rapidity of 
change in certain phases of social activities is the recognition 
that mere adjustment to existing conditions in society of the 
pupils in the secondary school is inadequate — that to this 
there must be added the development of a capacity to read- 
just to the changed conditions which we may be sure will face ' 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 347 

the pupils after leaving the school, conditions which we can- 
not clearly foresee but which we know will in some respects 
differ from existing conditions. Of all elements in secondary- 
education this is the one most likely to be neglected or mini- 
mized. The tendency in that direction is easy to explain. 
Mere adjustment to existing conditions is relatively easy, 
the path toward it is direct, and the returns immediate and 
readily perceived. The development of a capacity to read- 
just constantly to the changing conditions of life is relatively 
difficult, the path toward it is indirect, and the returns rela- 
tively remote and not readily observed. However, the diffi- 
culty of attaining and the difficulty of developing a capacity 
to readjust cannot justify the neglect of that phase of the 
social function of the secondary school. 

144. Social integration and differentiation. In any society 
there are always two sets of forces at work which determine 
the form of social organization, one set of forces tending to 
bind together the various parts of society and to unify it, the 
other set tejiding to separate the various parts of society and 
to disrupt it. Without the first set of forces in operation there 
could be no real society: without the second set of forces 
in operation society would be static, non-progressive, and 
lacking the possibility of modification. Whatever be one's 
views of the form of social evolution the facts must be recog- 
nized that social forces are dynamic and that there are always 
two factors at work, one determining the essential unity and 
continuity of society, the other determining differentiation 
and change. The operation of the first factor may be termed 
"integration," that of the second factor "differentiation," 
terms borrowed from the field of biological evolution without 
necessarily implying any complete analogy between social 
and biological evolution. 

In the units which go to make up society there are always 
elements of homogeneity and elements of heterogeneity. 



348 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

On the maintenance of the proper equihbrium between those 
elements depend the existence, continuity, and progress of 
society and the problem in any society is twofold: (1) to 
develop out of the heterogeneous raw material that degree 
of homogeneity (like-mindedness) which is necessary for the 
permanence of the society; and (2) to provide that the maxi- 
mum efficiency may result from individual differences in 
capacities, interests, and abilities, as well as from the adap- 
tation of individuals to the widely differentiated needs of 
society. Between these two needs of society there must 
always be a certain amount of antagonism and conflict but 
it is an error to conceive that we must choose between them 
because of a certain opposition of function. Rather we must 
conceive that they are both necessary and that their rela- 
tion is supplemental far more than antagonistic. In any 
society there is need of a certain amount of unity of thought, 
of feeling, of ideals, of standards, of conduct. Such unity is 
more necessary in a democracy such as ours than in any 
other society. But it is also true that individual differences 
and the differentiated needs of modern society demand 
recognition. Hence the factors of integration and of differ- 
entiation are both important and neither can be neglected 
without incurring the gravest social dangers. Failure to pro- 
vide for the factor of differentiation has for centuries been 
noteworthy in the social organization and in education. 
Failure to provide properly for the factor of integration is 
a very real possibility in social, economic, and educational 
theory and practice at present. 

The implication of this principle for education, and 
especially for secondary education, is clear. As an efficient 
social institution secondary education must recognize the 
necessity of provision for training which shall serve to make 
for integration, training which shall allow for the individual 
differences among the pupils and the differentiated needs of 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES S4>9 

society, training in which the supplementary relation of the 
two factors is observed. 

145. Changes in other social institutions. All the major 
activities of society and the greater part of the minor activ- 
ities of society are organized into institutions which may be 
considered (a) as embodying the recognized purposes of 
society in the various fields of human activity, (6) as instru- 
ments of social control, and (c) as media for the communi- 
cation and transmission of group experience. Among such 
institutions, of major importance are those centering aroimd 
the home, the community life, the State, the Church, the 
vocation, and the school. Since they represent phases of 
the social purpose and of the social process, and since the 
social process is evolutionary, we must conceive of these 
institutions as susceptible of change with time and as them- 
selves evolutionary. Hence we must expect to find insti- 
tutions undergoing modification as time progresses, at times 
losing certain functions, at times adding new functions, at 
times changing the specific character and direction of their 
activities. Such changes are manifest in the history of every 
institution and the history of education indicates that the 
school as a formal agency of education originated and devel- 
oped by assuming functions and activities which had pre- 
viously belonged to other institutions. 

Recognizing the fact that institutions change it is com- 
monly held that when existing institutions afford socially 
adequate training in desirable social activities, the school 
as the formal agency of education should not assume the 
responsibility for such training, the reason for this being 
found in the fact that the direct education coming through 
actual participation in the activities of society is far more 
valuable than the indirect education provided by the school 
as a preparation rather than a form of actual participation. 
Conversely, it is commonly held that when any other social 



350 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

institution fails to provide or ceases to provide desirable 
forms of training adequately for the social demands, such 
training must be taken over by the institution specially de- 
signed for formal education — the school. 

The implication of this principle for education is twofold 
■ — that the school must be expected to assume certain new 
functions as other institutions cease to meet them, and that, 
in some cases at least, the school must be brought into closer 
relation with other institutions for the proper coordination 
of functions of all educational institutions, formal and in- 
formal, and for the proper division of social responsibility. 
This must apply to secondary education as well as to other 
divisions of education, and it applies with special force at the 
present time. Within recent years important changes have 
taken place in the home, in the community life, in the State, 
in the Chm'ch, in the vocation, and in other social institu- 
tions, which have imposed on secondary education in the 
school many functions formerly exercised by one or more 
of those institutions. Those changes and their effects on 
secondary education are so important that they deserve 
more extended consideration in the following sections. 

146. Changes in the home and family life. To some ex- 
tent all other social institutions may be conceived as having 
developed out of the home and family as the fundamental 
social unit. Thus the State probably had its inception in the 
development of the family with its increasing number of 
members, through the clan and groups united by bonds of 
blood relationship and marriage. Thus religion and the 
church developed through the various forms of animistic, 
totemistic, and other forms of belief, in some cases prima- 
rily through the worship of common ancestors, the family 
or clan head being also the spiritual head of the social group. 
Thus the vocation was determined by the activities and 
needs of the family or clan. In general it is at least a tenable 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 351 

theory that the source of all institutional activities and func- 
tions is to be found in the activities and functions of the 
fundamental social group — the family. 

The history of the school as a social institution shows 
clearly that its inception and its development can be traced 
to the assumption of activities and functions taken either 
from the home directly or from the home indirectly through 
other social institutions which have previously taken over 
activities and functions formerly belonging to the home. 
Inevitable changes occur from time to time in the home. 
In such cases three lines of change may be possible: com- 
pensating changes may be made in the home itself; the 
change in the home may be compensated by a change in 
some other institution; the change in the home may be com- 
pensated in the institution which society has created for that 
special purpose, i.e., in the school. Sooner or later the ma- 
jority of such changes affect the school. 

To trace even all the important changes in the school 
which were due to changes in the activities and functions of 
the home would be impossible here. Only some of the more 
important and somewhat recent of such changes can be here 
considered — such changes as apparently affect the present 
character of secondary education. These may be conven- 
iently grouped under two heads : those affecting problems of 
moral-social education; and those affecting vocational edu- 
cation. In addition, however, we may consider certain 
changes in the relation between the home and the school. 

(i) Changes affecting moral-social education : Within the 
past three or four generations the development of the home 
as an informal institution of education has been marked by 
important changes in the stimuli and opportunities for 
moral-social education, changes which have on the whole 
tended to lessen the influence of the home as an educational 
agency. The majority of those changes center around the 



352 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

lessening of the home or family solidarity. This is manifest 
in the lessening interdependence of members of the family; 
in the lessened amount of responsibility of the children of 
the family, accompanied in many cases by a greatly in- 
creased amount of privilege; in the withdrawal of the father, 
and sometimes the mother, from home occupations to occu- 
pations in the factory; in the effects of increased urbaniza- 
tion where the activities of the family are less unified; in 
the decreased religious atmosphere in the home; in the 
reconstruction of family relations in the case of foreign-born 
parents and native-born children; in the increase of divorce; 
and in a multitude of other ways. Scarcely two generations 
ago the social stimuli and the opportunities — nay, more, the 
necessities — of moral-social education in the home were 
far greater along important lines than is the case to-day, and 
the changes are due, not altogether to a decreased sense of 
responsibility on the part of parents, but to forces over 
which they have had little or no control. They have been 
necessary results of powerful social and economic forces at 
work throughout society. Thus less than half a century ago 
the "typical" family in America lived in a small town or on 
the farm, the occupations of the fathers were largely on the 
farm or in local industries, the occupations of women were 
almost exclusively in the home, and a multitude of house- 
hold tasks and home or farm " chores " provided excellent 
opportunity for the participation of children in the activi- 
ties of the family. Since that time the tendency has been 
strongly in the direction of home conditions in the city, the 
factory system has removed most of occupational stimuli 
from the home, women have entered industries and occu- 
pations never thought of a half -century ago, and modern 
labor-saving devices have removed the majority of home 
activities for boys and greatly lessened those for girls. The 
result has been that the sense of social responsibility devel- 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 353 

oped by necessary participation in the activities of the fam- 
ily in former times has not been developed in the children 
of the family within recent years, individual privileges have 
been extended with the increase of leisure and the increase of 
opportunities for utilizing that leisure, parents and children 
spend less and less of their time in close association with a 
resulting loss of intimate relation, and the primary agency 
for the development of ideals and habits of social duties and 
responsibilities has lost opportunities for social training that 
it can never fully recover. To this we may add the fact that 
parents themselves not well educated in some respects find 
greater and greater difficulty in preparing their children for 
the needs of modern life, a fact which is particularly perti- 
nent in the cases of large numbers of foreign-born parents. 

Obviously the burden thrown on the school by the de- 
creased influence of the home in these respects affects all 
divisions of education, including secondary education. It 
is in part the basis of the present demand for increased 
attention to the moral and social education of boys and 
girls, a demand which cannot be neglected without distinct 
loss to our efficiency as a nation. 

(S) Changes affecting vocational education : With respect 
to stimuli and opportunities for vocational education no less 
important changes have taken place in the development of 
the home and family life within the past three or four gener- 
ations, those changes constantly tending to decrease the 
amount of vocational stimuli and opportunity offered in 
that institution. To illustrate the changes which have taken 
place in this connection and in connection with the preced- 
ing paragraphs we cannot, perhaps, do better than quote 
from Dewey's description made a decade ago: 

Back of the factory system lies the household and neighborhood 
system. Those of us who are here to-day need to go back only one, 
two, or at most three generations, to find a time when the house- 



354 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

hold was practically the center in which were carried on all the 
typical forms of industrial occupation. The clothing worn was for 
the most part not only made in the house, but the members of the 
household were usually familiar with the shearing of the sheep, the 
carding and spinning of the wool, and the plying of the loom. In- 
stead of pressing a button and flooding the house with electric 
light, the whole process of getting illumination was followed in its 
toilsome length, from the killing of the animal and the trying of 
fat, to the making of wicks and dipping of candles. The supply of 
flour, of lumber, of foods, of building materials, of household fur- 
niture, even of metal ware, of nails, hinges, hammers, etc., was in 
the immediate neighborhood, in shops which were constantly open 
to inspection and often centers of neighborhood congregation. The 
entire industrial process stood revealed, from the production on 
the farm of raw materials, till the finished article was actually put 
to use. Not only this but practically every member of the house- 
hold had his own share in the work. The children, as they gained 
in strength and capacity, were gradually initiated into the myste- 
ries of the several processes. It was a matter of immediate concern, 
even to the point of actual participation. 

We cannot overlook the factors of discipline and of character- 
building involved in this: training in habits of order and industry, 
and in the idea of responsibility, of obligation to do something, to 
produce something, in the world. There was always something 
which really needed to be done, and a real necessity that each 
member of the household should do his own part faithfuUy and in 
cooperation with others. Personalities which became effective m 
action were bred and tested in the medium of action. Again, we 
cannot overlook the importance for educational purposes of the 
close and intimate acquaintance got with nature at first hand, with 
real things and materials, with the actual processes of their manip- 
ulation, and the knowledge of their social necessities and uses. In 
all this there was continual training of observation, of ingenuity, 
constructive imagination, of logical thought, and of the sense of 
reality acquired through first-hand contact with actualities. The 
educative force of the domestic spinning and weaving, of the saw- 
mill, the grist-mill, the cooper shop, and the blacksmith forge, 
were continuously operative.^ 

1 Dewey, J., The School and Society, pp. 22-24. Quoted with the per- 
mission of the publishers. University of Chicago Press. 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 355 

Many factors have combined to remove such vocational 
stimuli and opportunities from the home: (a) the develop- 
ment of organized industry and the factory system; (6) the 
application in the home of labor-saving devices; (c) the 
development of more complicated and scientific methods 
and processes in industry (e.g., scientific methods in farm- 
ing), for which the ordinary activities of the home and com- 
munity can provide but inadequate training; (d) the less- 
ened self-sufficiency of the home for its own needs; (e) the 
tendency toward urbanization introducing in some ways a 
more simplified, in other ways a more complicated life; 
(J) the decrease of " trade heredity " from father to son, or 
even from mother to daughter. 

The lessened influence of the home in vocational training 
calls for increased attention to that form of education either 
in the school or in some other social institution. It will be 
shown in a later section that industry and the vocation itself 
does not adequately provide vocational training. The only 
other available institution for that purpose is the school. 
It is obvious that the great burden of this vocational train- 
ing must be provided in the secondary division of the system 
of education. 

(3) Changes in the relation between the home and the school: 
Not only is it true that changes in the home itself have 
imposed responsibilities on the secondary school but it is 
also true that the relation between the two institutions has 
changed to such an extent that the school must assume cer- 
tain responsibilities before appropriate to the home. This 
arises from the fact that the school has preempted a much 
greater amount of the time of the child, thus necessarily 
limiting the amount of education which the home can afford. 
This is true in two respects. While the length of the school 
day has not noticeably, if at all, been increased (it has some- 
times worked in quite the opposite direction), the control 



356 PEINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of the pupils' time through the supervision of extra-curricula 
activities and home study has markedly increased. Like- 
wise the number of individuals involved has very decidedly 
increased within the past two decades with great resultant 
increase in the aggregate of the control of the time of the 
youth in the secondary school. Thus not only does the home 
commonly fail to aiford opportunity for education to the 
extent it did a generation or two ago, but, even were the 
desirable educational stimuli and opportunities to be found 
in the home, their effectiveness would be reduced because 
of the lessened contact with the child. The school which has 
itseK reduced the opportunity for education in the home 
must meet its resulting responsibilities. 

To these considerations may be added the fact that the 
trend of the development of community life has been such 
as to destroy to some extent the intimate contact which 
formerly existed between the home and the school. Hence 
the development of numerous movements such as parent- 
teacher associations and the high-school-as-the-civic-center 
movement to promote a closer cooperation between the two 
institutions. 

147. Changes in community life. Closely allied to 
changes in the home and family life affecting education are 
changes in the community life which have within the past 
few generations affected the character of secondary educa- 
tion in important ways. Without attempting to draw any 
sharp dividing line between family life and community life 
on the one hand and between commimity life and the more 
extended functions of the State and society as a whole on 
the other hand, we may gain a knowledge of some forces 
affecting education by noting certain changes in community 
life. Among the most important changes which have oc- 
curred within recent times we may consider the following: 
the change from the small community in the country to the 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 



357 



city community; the increasing heterogeneity of population 
in communities; the mobiHty of labor and population. 

{!) Changes tending toward urbanization: One of the most 
noticeable and one of the most important social changes 
which have taken place in this country within the past half- 
century is the increased tendency for the population to con- 
gregate in the cities and to withdraw from the rm-al com- 
munities. This tendency is clearly seen from the figures 
presented in the following table. 

Table CXVI. The Distribution of Urban and Rural Popu- 
lation IN THE United States in 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910 * 





1880 


1890 


1900 


1910 


Division of the country 


Urban 
(per 
cent) 


Rural 

(per 
cent) 


Urban 
(per 
cent) 


Rural 

(per 
cent) 


Urban 
(per 
cent) 


Rural 

(per 
cent) 


Urban 
(per 
cent) 


Rural 

(per 
cent) 


New England 


68.7 
49.9 
27.5 
18.1 
15.1 
8.4 
12.2 
23.6 
36.2 


31.3 
50.1 

72.5 
81.9 
84.9 
91.6 
87.8 
76.4 
63.8 


75.8 
57.7 
37.8 
25.8 
19.5 
12.7 
15.1 
29.3 
42.5 


24.2 
42.3 
62.2 
74.2 
80.5 
87.3 
84.9 
70.7 
57.5 


79.9 
65.2 
45.2 
28.5 
21.4 
15.0 
16.2 
32.3 
46.4 


20.1 
24.8 
54.8 
71.5 
78.6 
85.0 
83.8 
67.7 
53.6 


83.3 
71.0 
52.7 
33.3 
15 A 
18.7 
22.3 
36.0 
56.8 


16 7 


Middle Atlantic 


29 


East North Central 


47 3 


West North Central 


66 7 


South Atlantic 


74 6 


East South Centpal 


81 3 


West South Central 


77.7 


Mountain 


64.0 


Pacific. 


43.2 






United States 


29.5 


70.5 


36.1 


63.9 


40.5 


59.5 


46.3 


53.7 







* Report of the Thirteenth Census (1910), vol. i, p. 57. Urban communities include all over 
2500 population: rural communities include all others. 

What are the implications of such conditions for educa- 
tion? The answer to this question calls for the direction of 
our views along two different lines. In the first place, it is a 
pertinent theory that the failure of the school to meet com- 
munity needs has itself contributed toward present condi- 
tions which are not altogether desirable, through its failure 
to adapt itself to the needs of the smaller community and by 
providing the sort of an education which has tended to drive 
country children to the cities instead of providing an educa- 



358 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tion suited to the needs of rural life. In so far as such a the- 
ory is valid (and it is valid within limits only) the implica- 
tion for education is an extended adaptation of the character 
of school education to the diversified needs of different com- 
munities. P^ -:| 

In the second place, it must be recognized that the ten- 
dency toward greater urbanization has resulted in the loss of 
important forms of social-civic, vocational, cultural, and 
physical education previously provided informally by com- 
munity life, forms of education which must now be taken 
over in part at least by the school. Here we may note par- 
ticularly the greatly lessened opportunities for social and 
physical development through play in the modern city as 
compared with opportunities afforded in the rural com- 
munity or small town, the loss of rather direct and intimate 
contact with all the activities of civic agencies, the loss of 
close contact with industrial activities, the loss of the in- 
fluence of a sense of social and individual responsibility 
where one's every act is known by the entire community, 
and the diminished sense of belonging to a definite social 
unit. 

(2) The increasing heterogeneity of population in commun- 
ities : As is the case for the country as a whole so it is the 
case for communities (especially for towns and cities) that 
the population has tended within the past few generations 
to become more and more heterogeneous, and consequently 
the unity of life in communities has constantly diminished. 
Hence it is that the general stimuli of life in any given com- 
munity have tended to become less and less adequate for 
the social-civic education of the children of that community 
with the result that a further responsibility for increased 
attention to that form of education has been imposed on the 
school. Where this heterogeneity of population has been 
accompanied by an increased diversity of industries, as is 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 



S59 



not infrequently the case, further implications for vocational 
education in the school are found. 

(3) The mobility of labor and population : Important for 
questions of social-civic and vocational education is the fact 
that labor and population has tended on the whole to be- 
come more mobile. Increased facilities for transportation 
and the extension of the labor market have made a change 
of residence from one community to another much more 
common than formerly. At the same time the breakdown of 
the older apprentice system has operated to reduce the ten- 
dency of the workman to remain in any one community. 
Thus, in the year 1912-13, from a study of the fathers of 
22,027 boys thirteen years of age in the schools of sev- 
enty-eight American city school systems, Ayres secured the 
data presented in the following table. 

Table CXVII. Bhithplaces of Boys and their Fathers 
IN Seventy-eight Cities * 





Boys 


Fathers 


Birthplace 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


Same city 


12,699 
4,233 
3,069 
2,026 


58 

19 

14 

9 


3,601 
5,349 
4,364 
8,713 


16 


Same State but not same city 

Other State in United States 

Foreign country 


24 
20 
40 






Total 


22,027 


100 


22,027 


100 







* Ayres, L. P., Some Conditions affecting Problems 0/ Industrial Education in Seventy-eight 
American School Systems. Bulletin E. 135 of the Russell Sage Foundation, p. 7. 



The data giving the birthplaces of the boys and their fathers 
show that only about one father in six is now living in the city of 
his birth and that among the boys only a few more than one-half 
are now living where they were born. These facts are significant 
because it is often urged that the schools should develop courses 



360 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of industrial education that will directly prepare the children to 
enter local industries. But if present conditions maintain in the 
future the great majority of adults are not going to work in the 
same communities in which they received their schooling. 

It is clear that the conditions illustrated by Ayres's inves- 
tigation are significant not merely for problems of vocational 
education but also for other forms of education. 

148. Changes in the Church and religion. The Church 
has always been one of the most conservative of social insti- 
tutions. As a result of that conservatism such changes as 
have taken place have meant: (a) a splitting-off of new 
denominations or sects from the parent institution; (6) a 
decrease or increase in the number of active adherents of the 
Church or of various denominations; (c) an increase or de- 
crease in the influence which the Church and its religion 
exercised over its adherents. Changes along these lines have 
not been without importance for education in this country 
within the past few generations, though their extent is very 
diifficult to determine. 

The World Almanac for 1917 lists forty-nine different 
denominations with one hundred and seventy-one different 
sects in the United States. How far the Church and religion 
have lost unity through the development of numerous de- 
nominations and sects it is impossible to estimate. This 
much, however, is sure, that the power of the Church as an 
integrating factor in American society has diminished in 
some degree even within the past few decades and in some 
communities it must be recognized that social unity is seri- 
ously imperiled by denominational discord. 

Even more difficult to measure is the result of changes in 
the number of Church communicants and the real influence 
of the Church and its religion over those communicants. 
This much appears clear, however, that religion has ceased 
to exert the extent of influence which it formerly exerted in 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 361 

certain directions for the people of America as a whole. 
Instances of such a loss of influence may be found in the 
disappearance of family prayers in many homes, the ob- 
servance of the Sabbath, the position of the Church as the 
community center, the lessened influence of the clergy. 
Extension of the activities of the Church in other directions 
has by no means recovered the influence which the Church 
once had. This has meant a distinct loss to education. If 
the loss were one merely of theological and ritualistic educa- 
tion it would not be so important. The great loss has been 
in moral and social education which have always been closely 
associated with religious education, and in the diminished 
power of one of the greatest of integrating factors. 

The implications for education arising from such changes 
in the Church and religion are recognition of the added 
responsibility for moral-social education in the school and 
recognition of the need for the school to assume added 
responsibility for its integrating function. 

In this connection it should be noted that acceptance of 
the principle that Church and State education must be sepa- 
rate in this country and that religious instruction cannot be 
provided in the public school has had the natural result of 
fostering denominational and sectarian schools, a result 
which was probably inevitable, but one which, if extended 
far, must inevitably lead to a direct conflict of educational 
policy. 

149. Changes in the vocation. The nineteenth century 
was distinctly a period of industrial change if not industrial 
revolution in this country as well as for civilized society in 
general. Within that period came : (a) the greatly extended 
application of science to industry; (b) the substitution of 
machinery for hand labor; (c) the substitution of the factory 
system for the domestic system of industry; (d) the exten- 
sion of industrial competition; (e) the development of organ- 



362 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ized labor; (/) the growth of highly specialized processes and 
the greater subdivision of labor; {g) the consequent break- 
down of the older apprentice system; Qi) the entrance of 
women into industry; (i) a change, particularly in this coun- 
try, in the relative importance of industrial efficiency and 
abundant natural resources as determining economic values; 
(j) a more intimate relation between government and indus- 
try; {k) the development of a tendency toward materiahsm 
in thought and life; (Z) the development of an industrial 
democracy; (m) the development of labor legislation, espe- 
cially as affecting the occupations of women and children, 
as affecting the hours and conditions of labor, and as 
affecting the age of entrance into industry. 

All these and other changes which have taken place within 
the past few generations in the field of the vocation may be 
grouped on the basis of their educational significance under 
one or more of the following main heads: (1) changes in the 
amount and character of vocational education provided by 
the vocation itself and by the system of industry; (2) changes 
in the requirements of the vocation and the conditions for 
entrance; (3) changes in the amount and character of non- 
vocational education provided by the vocation and by the 
system of industry, especially moral-social education. 

(1) Vocational education through the vocation : The dis- 
appearance of the older apprentice system which provided 
for the vocational education of the boy or girl in and through 
the vocation itself, the development of the factory system of 
industry which removed the field of industry from the home 
and smaller community where the boy and girl came into 
more direct and intimate contact with it and which itseK 
provided a greatly lessened training for those who entered 
industry the development of highly subdivided processes in 
any given trade which has made it possible and economical 
for the individual to become acquainted with a single small 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 363 

part only of any total trade or even any total process — all 
these and other changes have greatly dimmished the amount 
of vocational education formerly provided by the vocation 
itself and have greatly modified the character of such educa- 
tion as is still provided in industry. 

(2) Requirements of the vocation and of industry: The 
development of industrial competition and its extension to 
international competition has created a demand for a higher 
degree of industrial efficiency than was ever before neces- 
sary. In this country heretofore the abundance of natural 
resources has afforded an advantage which in industrial 
competition has left a margin permitting wasteful use of 
natural resources and a certain amount of industrial ineffi- 
ciency. That margin must constantly grow less, and even if 
that were not the case, it is probable that the wasteful 
methods of the past would not long survive the strenuous 
competition of modern industry. Thus industry has in- 
creased its demand for higher efficiency, implying better 
industrial training at the same time that the vocation itself 
and industry has decreased the opportunities which it for- 
merly provided for such training. 

At the same time practice and legislation have constantly 
extended the age at which boys and girls enter on their voca- 
tions, thereby reducing the possibility of early vocational 
education in industry itself. In particular child-labor laws 
and compulsory school-attendance laws have taken the 
child out of the environment wherein vocational stimuli 
and vocational education were provided. It is imperative 
that the school should in some degree provide for equiva- 
lent preparation for the vocation. 

(3) The vocation and moral-social education. It is a serious 
error to think the changes in the vocation and in industry 
are of importance in connection with vocational education 
and industrial efficiency alone. Such changes are fully as 



S64 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

significant in connection with moral-social education, a fact 
which is readily recognized when we consider the extensive 
development of the relations between labor and capital, the 
important part played by organized labor in industry, in 
government, in politics, and in the ordinary conduct of 
everyday life, when we consider the effect of the modern 
factory system on the individual worker and on home and 
community life, and when we consider the relations of pro- 
ducer and consumer under existing conditions. The high 
ethical standards of artizanship and of industrial responsi- 
bility were greatly diminished when the relation between 
producer and consumer became less direct, when highly 
divided industry came to prevent the individual worker 
from seeing the relation of his particular piece of work to 
the finished total product as well as the relation of that 
complete product to society's needs, and when the relation 
between the laborer and the employer became less and less 

close. 

The implications for education of changes in the vocation 
and in industry are perhaps primarily concerned with the 
need for recognition of the importance of vocational educa- 
tion and direction in the work of the school. By no means 
negligible, however, are the implications for social and moral 
education. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Show how differences between secondary education in Germany, 
France, England, and America manifest the influence of differences 
in dominant social ideals and the form of social organization. 

2. Show how social ideals in America changed during the nineteenth 
century and how the influence of those changes affected secondary 
education, 

3. Make as large a list as you can of civic duties and responsibilities at 
present required but not required a decade ago. How far did secondary 
education of a decade ago prepare for such duties and responsibilities? 

4. Compare the opportunities for amusement afforded when you were 



SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 365 

a pupil in the secondary school with those now afforded. How far did 
your secondary school education prepare you for the intelligent enjoy- 
ment of facilities for amusement? How could it have been bettered? 

5. In what ways can a capacity to readjust to the changing conditions of 
society be developed in the public secondary school? 

6. What are some of the important problems for secondary education 
arising out of the factors of integration and differentiation in society? 

7. Make a list of all the stimuli and opportunities for social-moral train- 
ing formerly found in the home and community life and no longer 
afforded by those institutions. Which of those can be partially replaced 
by secondary education? 

8. Make a list of all the stimuli and opportunities for vocational educa- 
tion formerly provided in the home and community life and no longer 
afforded by those institutions. Which of those can be partially pro- 
vided in the secondary school? 

9. Make a list of aU the stimuli and opportunities for moral-social educa- 
tion formerly provided by the vocation and industry and no longer 
provided by those agencies. 

10. Trace the decay of the older apprentice system and consequent de- 
mands on secondary education. 

11. In what ways has the industrial development tended to require more 
extensive education for workers? In what ways has it tended to require 
less education? 

12. What factors have tended to emphasize the need for more attention 
to moral education in the secondary school? 

13. What factors have tended to emphasize the need for more attention to 
social education in the secondary school? 

14. What factors have tended to emphasize the need for more attention 
to vocational education in the secondary school? 

15. What factors have tended to emphasize the need for more attention to 
physical education in the secondary school? 

16. What factors have tended to emphasize the need for more attention 
to education for the utilization of leisure in the secondary school? 

17. What factors have tended to emphasize the need for more attention to 
educational guidance in the secondary school? 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Betts, G. H., Social Principles of Education, especially chaps, n-vn, xi. 

Carlton, F. F., Education and Industrial Evolution. 

Cooley, E. H., Social Organization. 

Cubberley, E. P., The Changing Conceptions of Education, 

Davenport, E., Education for Efficiency. 

Dewey, J., Democracy and Education. 

Dewey, J., School and Society, chap. i. 



366 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

EUwood, C. A., Sociology and Modern Social ProhlemSy especially chap. xv. 
Henderson, E. N., A Text-Book in the Principles of Education, chaps. 

n-iv. 
Hollister, H. A., The Administration of Education in a Democracy, chap. vi. 
Inglis, A. J., "The Socialization of the High School," Teachers College 

Record, vol. xvi, no. 3 (May, 1915), pp. 205-16. 
King, I., Social Aspects of Education, especially chaps, i, ix-xi. 
McVannel, J. A., Outline of a Course in the Philosophy of Education, chaps. 

VI, IX, X. 

O'Shea, M. V., Social Development and Education. 

Smith, W. R., An Introduction to Educational Sociology. 

Snedden, D., "Social Aspects of High-School Education," chap, xxi of 
Monroe, P. (Editor), Principles of Secondary Education. 

Snedden, D., "The High School as a Social Enterprise,'^chap. ii of John- 
ston, C. H. (Editor), The Modem High School. 

Snedden, D., The Problem of Vocational Education. 

Ward, L. F., Dynamic Sociology, chap. xiv. 



CHAPTER X 

THE AIMS AND FUNCTIONS OF SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 

I. The Aims of Secondary Education 

150. The aims of secondary education : their basis. The 
key to any analysis of aims in education is to be found in an 
analysis of the activities of life in which people do or should 
engage. The aims of secondary education, therefore, as of 
any department of education, must be interpreted in terms 
of the activities in which individuals may be expected nor- 
mally to participate. Obviously those activities vary in 
different societies and at different periods. Obviously also 
different individuals and different groups of individuals 
engage in various activities in various ways and to varying 
degrees. Any complete analysis of the activities in which 
different individuals and different groups engage would 
involve an examination of all the multitudinous phases of 
human life. Such a detailed analysis is, of course, impossi- 
ble: if it were possible it would be of questionable value, 
since it would deal with individuals whose lives could not 
be prophesied. Certain general fields of activity, however, 
engage practically all individuals in some way and to some 
degree, furnishing fundamental aims for secondary educa- 
tion. 

151. Three fundamental aims of secondary education. 
Three important groups of activities require the participa- 
tion of the individual and establish three fundamental aims 
for secondary education, as for all education, in America. 
Those three groups of activities are distinguished accord- 



368 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ingly as they involve primarily: (1) participation in the 
duties of citizenship and in the not-directly economic rela- 
tions of cooperative group life; (2) participation in the pro- 
duction and distribution of economic utilities; (3) the life 
of the individual as a relatively free and independent per- 
sonality. Thus the three fundamental aims of secondary 
education are: 

(1) The preparation of the individual as a prospective 
citizen and cooperating member of society — the 
Social-Civic Aim; 

(2) The preparation of the individual as a prospective 
worker and producer — the Economic- Vocational 
Aim; 

(3) The preparation of the individual for those activities 
which, while primarily involving individual action, 
the utilization of leisure, and the development of 
personality, are of great importance to society — 
the Individualistic-A vocational Aim. 

It must be recognized that these three aims are not mu- 
tually exclusive, but rather that they are in a high degree 
interrelated and interdependent. Taken together they con- 
stitute the Social Aim of secondary education in the broad- 
est sense of the term. Every individual as a social unit is 
at the same time a citizen, a worker, and a relatively inde- 
pendent personality. The three phases of his life cannot be 
divorced, and in the secondary school preparation for no one 
of those phases of life should be neglected. 

152. The social-civic aim. The social-civic aim of second- 
ary education involves the preparation of individuals for 
efficient participation in those activities of society whose 
controlling purpose and primary object are desirable forms 
of social cooperation, e.g., the interrelated activities of peo- 
ple in community life, in making laws, in action according 
to laws, in political duties, and in general wherever group 



AIMS AND FUNCTIONS 369 

action and the not-directly economic relations between the 
individual and the group or between individual and indi- 
vidual are involved. Hence it demands the development 
of knowledge, habits, abilities, and ideals which will enable 
the individual efficiently to play his part as a social unit in 
group activities. 

Adequate preparation for and training in such social 
activities as are involved in the social-civic aim of second- 
ary education must include among others at least the follow- 
ing purposes: (1) the development of ideals and habits of 
conduct; (2) the development of ideals and habits of cooper- 
ation; (3) the development of a knowledge of important 
social institutions or agencies and their place in the social 
order, together with appropriate ideals, standards, and 
habits; (4) the development of a knowledge of the civic ac- 
tivities involved in community life, together with the related 
ideals, standards, and habits; (5) the development of a 
knowledge of the major activities of state and national life, 
together with appropriate ideals, standards, and habits; 
(6) the development of a knowledge of political principles 
and duties, together with appropriate ideals, standards, and 
habits; (7) throughout all secondary education, as far as 
may be possible, training in social activities through actual 
participation in the activities of the school itself and the 
community; (8) throughout all the development of a social 
conscience or sense of social responsibility. 

Important in any society, the social-civic aim is obviously 
most important in a democracy. 

153. The economic-vocational aim. The economic- 
vocational aim of secondary education involves the prepa- 
ration of the individual for efficient participation in those 
activities of society whose controlling purpose and primary 
object involve economic efficiency. Society makes its de- 
mand on every individual to participate in economic activity 



370 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

at least to the extent of "pulling his own load," and economic 
efficiency is a necessity of modern life to which each must 
contribute his share. So universal a necessity cannot be 
neglected by the secondary school unless it can be shown 
that other social agencies are equal to the task of such prep- 
aration. That other social agencies do not accomplish such 
preparation adequately has been indicated in the preced- 
ing chapter. The responsibility, therefore, falls on the 
school and must be recognized in the aims of secondary 
education. 

As long as pupils receiving the benefits of secondary edu- 
cation were drawn from classes whose vocations were almost 
entirely the higher professions, involving vocational educa- 
tion in higher institutions, the directly vocational aim in the 
secondary school was subordinated to other aims except in 
so far as preparation for higher institutions might be con- 
ceived as involving indirect contribution to a vocational aim. 
With the extension of the benefits of secondary education 
to the non-professional classes greater importance has neces- 
sarily been attached to the economic- vocational aim. 

Adequate preparation for and training in such activities 
as are involved in the economic- vocational aim of secondary 
education must include, as far as may be possible and with 
due reference to the different needs of special groups, the 
following purposes: (1) the development of the knowledges, 
skills, and habits involved in vocational activities; (2) some 
knowledge of the principles of economics; (3) some develop- 
ment of the ideals, standards, and conditions of the economic 
world; (4) the discovery and development of special interests 
and aptitudes of different individuals for vocational pursuits; 
(5) some vocational guidance; (6) the development of an 
understanding of the significance of various vocations to 
society; (7) the development of a conception of the relations 
between fellow-members of a vocation, between different 



AIMS AND FUNCTIONS 371 

vocational groups, between employee and employer, be- 
tween producer and consumer; (8) some knowledge of in- 
dustrial-governmental relations. 

The degree in which vocational education and training 
may be appropriate for various groups of pupils in the sec- 
ondary school obviously must differ. More uniformity is 
possible in the attainment of the social-civic aim than in the 
economic-vocational aim, since the activities involved in 
the former are more nearly the same for all individuals. The 
greater difficulty of attaining the economic-vocational aim 
is, however, no justification for its neglect in the second- 
ary school. 

154. The individualistic-avocational aim.^ The individ- 
ualistic-avocational aim of secondary education involves the 
preparation of the individual for those activities of life whose 
primary object and controlling purpose are personal develop- 
ment and personal happiness through the worthy use of 
leisure. The social-civic and the economic-vocational aims 
of education are directly and constructively social. Their 
contributions to social well-being and to social progress are 
obvious. On the other hand, the individualistic-avoca- 
tional aim of education is sometimes falsely conceived to be 
non-social. This is a serious error arising in large part from 
the fact that its contributions to social well-being and to 
social progress are, in a sense, indirect and to some extent 
negative. For centuries academic asceticism has frowned 
upon any kind of education which frankly or in disguised 
form favored varied opportunity for the development of per- 
sonality and for the enjoyment of leisure. Since the indi- 
vidualistic-avocational aim of education deals primarily 
with the leisure part of life its importance is constantly 
minimized by educational theorists. Thus Spencer, identi- 

^ The terms "culture" and "cultural" are purposely avoided here be- 
cause of their ambiguity in modern educational thought. 



372 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

fying preparation for leisure with preparation for the refine- 
ments of hfe, says: ^ 

Accomplishments, the fine arts, belles-lettres, and aU those things 
which, as we say constitute the efflorescence of civilization, should 
be wholly subordinate to that knowledge and discipline in which 
civilization rests. As they occupy the leisure part of life, so should 
they occupy the leisure part of education. 

The following considerations suggest that such a concep- 
tion is fallacious. 

(1) Preparation for the leisure part of life is very far 
from being confined to "accomplishments, fine arts, belles- 
lettres" and preparation in such fields would be far from 
adequate for the proper utilization of leisure, were it possible 
to provide such training for all. The average individual 
has from one quarter to one fifth of his time for leisure. His 
action during leisure is as much a matter of social concern 
(at least in a negative sense) as his action in any other part of 
his life. Within recent years there has been a constant ten- 
dency to increase the amount of leisure time at the disposal 
of the individual. That increase in the amount of leisure 
has introduced problems of no slight importance for second- 
ary education. 

(2) While the individual's activities during his leisure 
time are not designed primarily to make positive contribu- 
tions to social well-being and to social progress and while 
they do not tend on the whole to build up society, unless 
directed along desirable social lines they may and doubtless 
do tend to interfere seriously with that process, or even, in 
some cases, to tear civilization down. Vice and social degen- 
eration find fertile soil in leisure. The social menace of the 
activities of leisure not well guided, where standards, habits, 
and ideals have not been established along desirable social 
lines, is by no means slight or unimportant. Let the leisure 

^ Spencer, H., Education^ chap, i (Burt edition), p. 68. 



AIMS AND FUNCTIONS 373 

time of any society be well controlled and there is little dan- 
ger that such a society will not endure and prosper. Let the 
leisure time of any society be neglected or misused and there 
is Uttle hope that it will prosper. 

(3) The conditions of modern industry have tended 
(a) to allow the worker an increased amount of leisure time, 
and (6) to reduce the stimuli and opportunities for personal 
development and personal enjoyment in and through labor 
itself. Factory labor has tended to reduce the economic 
activity of the worker to a level of deadening monotony 
where either development or enjoyment is reduced to lowest 
terms. In some way those stimuli and opportunities for 
personal development and personal enjoyment must be 
provided in modern life. 

(4) It is altogether probable that in this country the time 
is rapidly approaching, if indeed it has not already arrived, 
when conditions of labor cannot continue to decrease the 
ultimate efficiency of the worker by failing to allow sufficient 
leisure for re-creation through recreation. It remains to be 
seen whether or not the increased leisure and the extended 
opportunity to utilize leisure may not seriously impair the 
social efficiency of our society, if greater preparation for the 
intelligent and sane use of leisure is not provided. 

Legitimate fields for the carrying-out of the individual- 
istic-avocational aim of secondary education may well 
include, among others, the following: (a) the development 
of a sense of social responsibility for individual action, even 
where the primary object is legitimately personal develop- 
ment and personal enjoyment, i.e., a respect for the rights 
and interests of others; (b) the development of tastes and 
standards for enjoyment and the use of leisure — moral and 
aesthetic, e.g., in reading, in the theater, in physical recre- 
ation, etc.; (c) the development of self-sustaining habits 
of amusement along desirable lines — the development of 



374 PRINCrPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

interests, hobbies, etc., which may prevent one from sink- 
ing to grosser pleasures through a lack of higher interests; 

(d) a knowledge of certain pleasure evils and their results; 

(e) the development of pleasure interests, where possible, 
which are at the same time social benefits and means of per- 
sonal enjoyment. 

155. The interrelation of the three aims. It has already 
been suggested that these three aims of secondary education 
are not mutually independent, but rather are interrelated 
and interdependent, since they represent but three different 
phases of life which concern each individual. Historically 
the necessary interrelation of the three aims has not always 
been properly recognized, with the result that some one of 
the aims has been emphasized to the neglect or under- valua- 
tion of the others. Thus neglect or insufficient attention to 
the economic- vocational aim in the past is recognized by. 
those familiar with the history of education. Its over- 
emphasis is not impossible in some cases at the present time. 
Thus the individualistic-a vocational aim has received more 
than its just due at some times in the past. Its neglect is a 
possibility in some cases at the present time. The possi- 
bility of separating the three aims for purposes of objective 
analysis should not lead to the assumption that they can 
be separated in the case of any individual's education. No 
form of secondary education which fails to provide ade- 
quately for all three forms of activity can be considered 
satisfactory. 

156. Aims based on traits involved. In the preceding 
discussion the aims of secondary education have been con- 
sidered in terms of the activities involved in life. Efficient 
participation in those activities depends on the employment 
of physicial, mental, moral, and aesthetic traits which must 
be developed in individuals. Hence the attainment of the 
aims set is conditioned by the development of physical effi- 



AIMS AND FUNCTIONS S75 

ciency, mental eflSciency, moral efficiency, and sesthetic 
efficiency of pupils. These four elements may be conceived 
as objectives of education cutting cross-sections through 
each of the social aims formulated above, no one of which 
is attainable without their development. With whichever of 
the two sets of aims one starts he is bound soon to reach and 
consider the other. The more promising approach, however, 
is the social. 



II. The Functions of Secondary Education 

157. The functions of secondary education. For present 
purposes the term "functions" is employed to designate 
certain elements for which secondary education must pro- 
vide if the aims previously formulated are to be attained. 
Those functions are determined in part by the nature of 
society and in part by the nature of the pupils to be educated, 
factors which in important ways condition the attainment 
of the aims set. If we conceive of the aims of secondary 
education as the ultimate goals which it is to attain we must 
recognize that certain factors must be involved in the at- 
tempt to reach those goals. Thus we may conceive of the 
social-civic aim of secondary education as involving prepa- 
ration for efficient participation in social-civic life. Many 
important functions are therein involved, e.g., means of 
adjusting the individual and his social environment, the 
development of a "social mind'* and social cohesion among 
groups of individuals, the adjustment of individual differ- 
ences to the differentiated needs of society, control of the 
factor of selection in secondary education, educational, 
moral, social, and vocational guidance. 

The remaining sections of this chapter will deal with the 
following six important functions of secondary education: 
(1) the adjustive or adaptive function; (2) the integrating 



376 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

function; (3) the differentiating function; (4) the propse- 
deutic function; (5) the selective function; (6) the diagnostic 
and directive function. Their relation to the aims of second- 
ary education will appear more clearly from the following 
discussion. 

158. The adjustive or adaptive function. It is a postulate 
of the social aim of secondary education that it should pro- 
vide means for the adjustment of the pupil to his social 
environment. In section 143 (Chapter IX) it was maintained 
that the social environment to which the secondary-school 
pupil is to be adjusted is dynamic, not static, and that the 
rapidity of social change is so great as to warrant the assump- 
tion that the social environment in which the present pupil 
is later to live will in important respects differ from that of 
the present. The course of social evolution shows clearly 
that for any one generation the total social organization 
represents a composite of relatively stable and constant 
elements of the past and certain elements appropriate to 
the present. It also implies that the present social organiza- 
tion comprises certain elements which may be expected to 
remain relatively stable and constant in the near future, 
and others which we may confidently expect to be either 
entirely lost or radically modified. This suggests that mere, 
adjustment through the development of relatively fixed 
habits of reaction is fairly adequate for those elements which 
may be conceived as destined in all likelihood to remain 
relatively unchanged in their essential characteristics within 
the life of the present generation. It suggests also, however, 
that adjustment alone (in the sense of the establishment of 
fixed habits of reaction) is insufficient, and that some capac- 
ity for readjustment must be developed if the individual is 
to be prepared for the changing conditions which will in- 
evitably come during his life after the period of formal 
education. In other words, the adjustive function of second- 



AEVIS AND FUNCTIONS 377 

ary education includes both the estabHshment of certain 
fixed habits of reaction, certain fixed standards and ideals, 
and also the development of a capacity to readjust ade- 
quately to the changing demands of life. Tempora mutantur, 
et nos mutamur in illis, is true with regard to the times; it is 
true of us only in a collective sense and to the extent that 
readaptation is possible. 

159. The integrating function. In section 144 (Chapter 
IX) the bearing of the social factors of integration and differ- 
entiation on secondary education was discussed. It was there 
pointed out that one of the imperative demands made by 
society on the secondary school is provision for the develop- 
ment of that amount of like-mindedness, of unity in thought, 
habits, ideals, and standards, requisite for social cohesion 
and social solidarity. From this arises the integrating func- 
tion of secondary education, which in this country particu- 
larly is constantly acquiring greater and greater importance 
for a number of reasons. Among these may be mentioned 
the following: 

(1) The increasing complexity of life In a modern democ- 
racy constantly increases the amount of common knowledge, 
of common action, and common ideals necessary. The ele- 
mentary school is constantly becoming less and less ade- 
quate for this need. 

(2) The increasing heterogeneity of the population in this 
country tends constantly to increase the diversity of social 
heredity and therefore to render the process of social inte- 
gration more necessary and more difficult. 

(3) The increasing diversity of industrial occupations and 
of living conditions tends constantly to increase the forces 
of differentiation demanding increased forces of integration 
to balance and compensate. 

(4) Other institutions which formerly operated as inte- 
grating agencies have been modified in such a way as to 



378 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

operate with diminished force in that direction or have 
proved quite inadequate for that purpose under the changed 
conditions of society: e.g., the Church and rehgion. 

To conceive that the factor of integration is of importance 
in connection with problems of "class distinction" only is 
an error. Important as those problems are for a democracy 
they involve but a part only of a more fundamental problem 
including other problems of social integration. 

i6o. The differentiating function. The integrating func- 
tion must at all times be conceived as correlated with the 
differentiating fimction of secondary education and the 
relation between the two functions must be considered as 
supplemental rather than conflicting, the supplemental rela- 
tion being necessitated by the relation of the two factors of 
integration and differentiation in the process of social evolu- 
tion. As the integrating function of secondary education 
arises out of the necessity of developing a certain amount of 
homogeneity out of the heterogeneous population for the 
purpose of assuring social solidarity, so the differentiating 
function of secondary education arises out of the necessity 
of taking advantage of the differences among individuals for 
the purpose of determining social efficiency. 

Two facts make this differentiating function in secondary 
education both possible and necessary: 

(1) Pupils in the secondary school (the raw material with 
which secondary education must perforce deal and which 
conditions its operation) differ greatly in native capacities, 
in acquired tendencies (especially as conditioned by training 
outside the school), in interests and aptitudes. Failure to 
recognize this fundamental fact at any time must inevitably 
mean failure to do justice to the individual and failure to 
develop the highest social efficiency out of the raw material 
available. 
< (2) The diversified needs of modern industrial and social 



ABiS AND FUNCTIONS 379 

life demand preparation for widely different forms of activ- 
ity which cannot be provided for all individuals. Moreover, 
if such universal preparation were possible, it would be 
extremely wasteful and undesirable. The differentiated 
activities of life demand differentiated education, the burden 
of which, as far as formal education is concerned, must be 
borne by the secondary school. 

i6i. The propaedeutic function. The propsedeutic func- 
tion of secondary education is merely one phase of the adjus- 
tive function, having reference to a part only of secondary- 
school pupils — those preparing to continue their formal 
education in some higher institution. Preparation for such 
higher education cannot be considered as a separate aim of 
secondary education. It must be considered, however, as a 
legitimate function of secondary education in the case of 
those pupils whose preparation for the attainment of the 
ultimate aims of education may be extended over a longer 
period of time than that of the great majority. The general 
aims of the education of such pupils remain the same aims 
formulated above, namely, the social-civic aim, the economic- 
vocational aim, and the individualistic-avocational aim. 

A number of factors, however, affect the attainment of 
those aims in the case of the pupils who will continue their 
formal education in some higher institution. A more inten- 
sive and more extensive preparation for the social-civic 
activities is possible; preparation for vocational activities in 
its direct and specific form is deferred; different forms of 
preparation for different modes of leisure are possible and 
justified; a somewhat higher selection of pupils is common, 
at least with reference to social and economic status. As the 
activities of such pupils will "function" differently in life 
after the period of formal education, so must the function 
of secondary education differ somewhat in the case of such 
pupils. 



380 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Common practice tends either to over-estimate or to under- 
estimate the propsedeutic function of secondary education. 
In the past this function has commonly received altogether 
too much attention, and the rather definite requirements of 
preparation for higher education have tended to overbalance 
the whole economy of secondary education in this country 
until it became the dominant aim of the secondary school 
instead of occupying its legitimate place as a contributing 
function. On the other hand, the present revolt against such 
a domination of coUege preparation has in some cases led to 
a gross under-estimate of the importance of the propsedeutic 
function of secondary education. This has already been dis- 
cussed in section 128, and requires no further considera- 
tion here, except, perhaps, to recall the fact that secondary- 
school pupils destined to continue their formal education 
in higher institutions comprise the largest roughly homo- 
geneous group of pupils in the public secondary school — ■ 
homogeneous in the sense that a complete secondary-school 
course may be mapped out for this group much more readily 
than for any other group and in the sense that a rather 
definite and tangible temporary goal may be set up for their 
education. Whatever be the particular form that the artic- 
ulation between secondary education and higher education 
may eventually assume, it must be recognized that prepara- 
tion for higher education must be one of the legitimate 
functions of secondary education. Nevertheless it must also 
be recognized that it is but one of a number of functions. 

162. The selective function. Selection is a necessary 
function of any form of education, the necessity arising from 
the factor of individual differences which become an increas- 
ingly important factor as the course of education proceeds 
higher and makes a greater demand on capacity. It was 
pointed out in Chapter III that individuals differ widely in 
mental traits. In so far as those differences are due to the 



AIMS AND FUNCTIONS 381 

limits of capacity set by nature and to rates of development 
also determined by nature it is clear that, as education de- 
mands more and more capacity, with certain individuals the 
limits of their capacity are reached, or, what is more com- 
mon, the point is approached at which given possible 
amounts of training produce results incommensurate with 
the amount of teaching and learning energy expended, and 
the point of diminishing returns is reached. No amount of 
training can ever equalize the abilities of individuals whose 
native capacities differ to any marked degree. Hence selec- 
tion must inevitably be a function of secondary education. 

The selective function of secondary education may be 
viewed from two somewhat different but related aspects. 
From one aspect selection is commonly considered as in- 
volving the elimination of those individuals who are unable 
to meet the demands set. To this view little objection could 
be raised, provided, and only provided, that the demands 
set could be justified. In the past in this country and at 
present in some countries the demands set were largely 
based on the assumption that ability and willingness to meet 
the requirements of certain specified subjects of study with 
limited range measure intellectual ability in general — a 
theory which itself rests on the further assumption that 
either all desirable mental traits are involved in the specific 
subjects selected, or the improvement in the mental traits 
involved can be transferred to other material. Such a theory 
is discussed in detail in later sections. For the present it is 
sufficient to state that the theory must certainly be greatly 
modified and that it cannot justify emphasis on any small 
number of subjects in the secondary school as affording 
adequate training for all or as affording a training which is 
susceptible of unlimited transfer. 

In contrast to selection by elimination the second aspect 
of the selective function of secondary education emphasizes 



382 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

selection by differentiation. Its justification rests on two 
considerations: (1) that individuals differ in capacities, inter- 
ests, and the nature of environmental influences, those 
differences appearing not in the sum total of mental traits, 
but in the various mental traits as related to each other; 
(2) that, within limits, training in various specific mental 
traits or groups of traits is justified from a social viewpoint. 
In terms of psychology it assumes that different mental 
traits are found in different individuals in different degrees. 
In terms of sociology it means that no one subject or group 
of subjects can claim exclusive place in secondary education 
and that different subjects or groups of subjects are equally 
justified from the viewpoint of social economy. In terms of 
school practice it means that if a pupil lacks ability or inter- 
est in one field of study but possesses ability and interest in 
another, discrimination is justified, and, particularly in the 
public secondary school, that pupil has a right to receive 
education in fields for which he possesses ability and interest. 
He cannot be deprived of the opportunity for education 
because of inability or lack of interest in some officially 
favored subject or subjects. 

163. The diagnostic and directive function. A phase of 
the adjustive function, and one closely related to the selec- 
tive and differentiating functions, is the diagnostic and direc- 
tive function of secondary education. Social economy and 
personal efficiency and happiness postulate that each indi- 
vidual, as far as may be possible, should do what he can best 
do. The determination of what each pupil may best do and 
what he may do with the greatest efficiency and happiness 
caimot be accomplished unless he is brought into contact 
with a somewhat wide range of experiences, in large part 
through studies in the secondary school. Hence the school 
must provide materials to acquaint the pupil with various 
activities of life, must give him some opportunity to test 



AIMS AND FUNCTIONS 383 

out and explore his capacities and interests, and must pro- 
vide some direction and guidance therefor. The mere offer- 
ing of various forms of instruction does not complete the 
work of the secondary school. It must, as far as may be 
possible, add to that function the function of exploring, 
testing, diagnosing, and directing the education of the pupil. 
It must permit the pupil to discover and test his own special 
aptitudes and capacities, and must assist in that process 
through a thoroughgoing system of educational guidance, 
including educational guidance and direction in the narrower 
sense, moral guidance, social guidance, physical guidance, 
and vocational guidance. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. In this chapter the aims of secondary education have been formulated 
from the social viewpoint. How would the aims be modified if ap- 
proached from the individualistic viewpoint? 

2. How would a religious aim be related to the aims formulated in this 
chapter? 

3. Compare as many formulated aims of secondary education as you can 
find. (Cf . the references following, and Ruediger, W. C, The Principles 
of Education, pp. 86-90.) 

4. How is moral education related to the social-civic aim of secondary 
education? (Cf . MacVannel, J. A., Outline of a Course in the Philosophy 
of Education, pp. 99-115; Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, pp. 
40-65.) 

5. Trace each of the formulated aims of secondary education historically. 

6. Consider with reference to secondary education the classification of the 
activities of life made by Spencer. (Cf. Spencer, H., Education, chap, i^ 
pp. 17-22 (Burt edition).) 

7. In connection with the adjustive aim of secondary education show how 
the development of fixed habits of reaction are related to the develop- 
ment of adaptability. 

8. Show how the integrating function of secondary education affects the 
attainment of the social-civic aim. What relation does it have to the 
other aims? 

9. Show how the differentiating function of secondary education is related 
to the economic- vocational aim. What relation does it have to the other 
aims? 

10. Trace the history of the propedeutic function of secondary education- 



384 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

11. Compare the operation of the selective function of secondary education 
in Germany, France, England, and America. 

12. What are the present tendencies of the diagnostic function of secondary 
education in the United States.^* 

13. What are the present tendencies of the directive function of secondary 
education? 

14. What bearing does the relation between the integrating and the differ- 
entiating functions of secondary education have on problems of organi- 
zation in the American secondary school ? On the administration of the 
curriculum and course of study? 

15. What bearing does the selective function of secondary education have 
on the American secondary school? 

16. What effects has the neglect of the diagnostic and directive functions 
had on secondary education in this country? 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Colvin, S. S., An Introduction to High-School Teaching, chap. i. 

Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, chap, iii, pp. 40-65. 

Davis, C. O., High-School Courses of Study, pp. 1-11. 

Hanus, P. H., Educational Aims and Values, chap, iv, pp. 73-138. 

Henderson, E. N., Textbook in the Principles of Education, pp. 1-24, 478-501. 

Inglis, A. J., "The Socialization of the High School," Teachers College 

Record, vol. xvi, pp. 205-16. 
National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganization of 

Secondary Education, Report of the Revievnng Committee, Bureau of 

Education Bulletin. 
Parker, S. C, Methods of Teaching in High Schools, chap, ii, pp. 5-24. 
ilapeer, L. W., "A Core Curriculum for High Schools," School and Society, 

vol. V, pp. 541-49. 
Ruediger, W. C, Principles of Education, pp. 38-90. 
Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xii. 
Snedden D., in Seventy-Seventh Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of 

Education (January, 1914), pp. 88-119. 
Snedden, D., chap, xxi (pp. 745-74) of Monroe, P. (Editor), Principles of 

Secondary Education. 
Stout, J. E., The High School, chaps, ii-vni, pp. 14-87. 



PART III 

THE MEANS AND MATERIALS OF SECONDARY 

EDUCATION 



CHAPTER XI 

THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES — CRITERIA OF SUBJECT 
VALUES: ANALYSIS OF THE PROGRAM 

164. Subject values determined by aims and functions. 
The value of any subject of study for secondary education 
is to be determined and measured by the degree in which it 
may contribute to the attainment of the aims of secondary 
education and meet the demands of the functions of the 
secondary school. In the preceding chapter those aims were 
formulated as: (1) the social-civic aim, involving the prepa- 
ration of the individual with respect to his social efficiency 
in the narrower sense of that term; (2) the economic- voca- 
tional aim, involving the preparation of the individual with 
respect to his economic efficiency; and (3) the individualistic- 
avocational aim, involving the preparation of the individual 
with respect to the worthy utilization of his leisure time. 
Hence the value of any subject of study is to be measured 
according to the degree in which it may contribute directly 
or indirectly to the attainment of those desired ends, and 
the aims or purposes of any accepted subject of study in the 
secondary school are to be determined accordingly. 

In the preceding chapter the aims of secondary education 
were formulated in general terms only, a necessary condition 
ia formulating aims designed to hold at all times and in all 
places and a necessity resulting from our present lack of 
social, economic, physiological, and psychological data. 
Aims formulated in that way can be of service for general 
guidance only and must be analyzed and interpreted in 
particular terms before any adequate attempt can be made 
to measure the specific values of special subjects of study in 



388 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

secondary education. Thus we may set the preparation of 
the individual as a prospective worker or producer as one 
essential aim of the secondary school, but before any such 
preparation can be accomplished with satisfactory results 
it will be necessary for us to have knowledge of the specific 
capacities, skills, knowledges, and acquired habits required 
by the various vocational processes and knowledge of the 
special abilities, skills, knowledges, and habits which may 
be developed through the study of various subjects. Like- 
wise with the preparation of the individual for the other 
activities of life. Needless to say the sciences of sociology, 
economics, physiology, and psychology in the present stage 
of their development cannot begin to afford us the necessary 
data for such purposes and we are forced, therefore, to fall 
back on more or less empirical analysis of the problem, util- 
izing the results of accepted special principles of the sciences 
mentioned where they are available and where such special 
principles fail falling back on the general principles estab- 
lished in those fields. 

In the chapters immediately following the present chap- 
ter, analyses of special subjects of study in the secondary 
school are attempted. In this chapter attention will be 
devoted to certain general principles underlying the deter- 
mination of the program of studies. In particular the dis- 
cussion will concern: I. Direct Values; II. Indirect Values. 

I. Direct Values 

165. Direct values. By direct values are meant here those 
values which arise out of the fact that the specific abilities, 
knowledges, skills, etc., developed in and through a subject 
of study in the secondary school are directly and immediately 
applicable in certain phases of activity in life. Thus the 
elements of skill developed through the study of stenography 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 389 

or typewriting are directly applicable in certain very similar 
activities outside the school. Thus the use of the mother 
tongue has direct value. Thus the association 5 x 6 = 30 
has direct value for life. 

Direct values are so obvious that the ready acceptance of 
them is likely to lead us to overlook certain facts that are 
involved. It is probable that no subject of study which is a 
serious candidate for membership in the program of studies 
of the secondary school is wholly without some direct values 
for the real activities of life. It is obvious, therefore, that the 
problem must always concern the amount of direct value 
involved. It is obvious also that the amount of direct values 
found in any given subject must depend on the proportion 
of all individuals who may find occasion for the application 
of the abilities, knowledges, skills, etc., developed through 
the study of a given subject and the number of occasions in 
which they may apply. In other words direct values are 
relative, a fact obvious enough and yet a fact which has 
frequently been ignored by educational experts and one 
which is seldom recognized by teachers and pupils. Several 
misconceptions arising out of a failure to recognize the 
relativity of direct values are important enough to require 
special consideration. 

(1) One fallacy very common in educational theory and 
practice arises out of the failure to recognize a distinction 
between (a) fields of knowledge or skill which are of inesti- 
mable value to society and to civilization in their extended 
development through relatively few specialists, and (6) fields 
of knowledge or skill which are directly valuable for all or a 
majority of individuals. In arguments for the direct values 
of many subjects (especially the material sciences) the advo- 
cates of those subjects of study for the secondary school con- 
stantly emphasize the great contributions which those 
sciences have made to the advance of society and civiliza- 



390 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tion and tend to ignore the fact that those contributions 
have always come through the speciaHst. The fallacy in- 
volved is one of the most important of the numerous falla- 
cies found in the analysis of subject values made by Spencer 
in his essay on "What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth? " One 
may readily grant the values of any given science for society 
and the necessity of a knowledge of that science on the part 
of some individuals for the advantage of all individuals, 
without thereby accepting the theory that all individuals 
should receive training in that science. 

(2) Closely related to the first fallacy considered above is 
a second common fallacy which consists in a failure to dis- 
tinguish between values of production and values of con- 
sumption, between values of accomplishment and values of 
utilization. Many subjects of study which are of almost 
universal value from the viewpoint of a development of 
efficiency in consumption, utilization, and appreciation, 
have but very restricted value from the viewpoint of a 
development of efficiency in production and accomplish- 
ment. Thus it is a fact that all individuals must to some 
extent utilize the force of electricity and the ability to utilize 
the results of the science dealing with electricity is required 
of all individuals so that some universal values follow. This 
does not mean, however, that all individuals must be 
acquainted with the science of physics or even that part 
which deals with electricity any more than they need ac- 
quaintance with the subject of physics in order to apply the 
mechanics involved in walking. We may assume that 
nearly every individual is affected by the use of electricity 
directly in a large number of his everyday activities through 
the utilization of the electric light, the electric car, the tele- 
phone, telegraph, and a multitude of other applied forms of 
that force. It is to be noted, however, that such utilization 
requires nothing more than such simple kinds of knowledge 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 391 

and skill as are involved in pushing a button for light, pay- 
ing one's fare on the car, avoiding "live" wires, using the 
telephone receiver and transmitter, writing out a tele- 
graphic message, etc. — abilities which demand no exten- 
sive study of physics and which, as a matter of fact, have less 
to do directly with electricity than with other kinds of knowl- 
edge and skill. Expertness in production or accomplish- 
ment, in technical knowledge of processes, is not a necessary 
condition of expertness in consumption, or utilization, or 
appreciation, and the universality of use, consumption, or 
appreciation is no measure of universality of production, 
technical knowledge and skill, or accomplishment. All people 
wear shoes and it is necessary that every individual should 
have some knowledge of the way in which shoes should be 
worn or what may be expected of shoes in the way of looks 
and wear. It would be absurd, however, to measure the 
importance of a knowledge on the part of all people of the 
production of shoes by the importance of their use, and it is 
just as absurd to measure the values of subjects of study (as 
far as direct values are concerned) in terms of the univer- 
sality of the use or consumption of their products. What all 
people use they need to be trained how to use to the extent 
only of their actual use. For efficient use, however, no exten- 
sive study of most fields of knowledge is requisite for most 
people. 

(3) A third fallacy not infrequently found is one which 
involves a failure to distinguish between certain and con- 
tingent values, a failure to recognize the relativity of values 
based on the probability that circumstances will occur in the 
lives of given individuals where specified kinds of knowledge 
or skill may be of service.^ Studies which may be of great 
value to individuals on the contingency that they come into 

* The distinction is well drawn by Young, J. W. A., The Teaching of 
Mathematics, pp. 13-14. 



392 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

contact with unforeseen situations, may be of little value 
unless they actually meet with those situations. The direct 
values of the study of secondary-school mathematics or 
foreign languages are highly contingent for the majority of 
pupils at present engaged in their study. 

(4) A fourth fallacy frequently found in estimating the 
values of most subjects of study in the secondary school 
involves a failure to distinguish between the values attach- 
ing to certain parts only of any given subject and the values 
attaching to the whole related field of knowledge as organ- 
ized into a logical system. The fallacy arises somewhat as 
follows: element A is recognized as possessing universal 
values for direct application in life: element A belongs to 
that field of organized knowledge which goes under the name 
of English, mathematics, science, etc. : On this basis English, 
mathematics, science, etc., is introduced into the program 
of studies. Once introduced a multitude of other elements 
(B, C, D, E, etc.) are introduced under the general subject 
title and values attached to them which may belong legiti- 
mately to element A alone. In so far as element A depends 
for its functioning on the other elements involved such a 
process may be justified within limits. Not infrequently, 
however, the spread of borrowed values is quite illegitimate. 

From the considerations adduced above it is clear that the 
direct values of any field of study in the secondary school 
are to be measured according to : 

(a) The proportion of all individuals in whose lives situ- 
ations will arise calling for the direct application of such 
knowledges, abilities, skills, etc., as are involved in that field 
of study. Are the values universal .^^ If not, to what propor- 
tion of all individuals will they in all probability apply .^^ 
Are they effective through the specialist or through all 
individuals? 

(&) The number of occasions in the lives of individuals 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 393 

where the knowledges, etc., will apply. Are the values cer- 
tain or contingent? Is the hkelihood great or small that 
provocative situations will occur in the lives of many 
individuals? 

(c) The character of the responses called for by situations 
in life. Are they such as to demand efficiency in production, 
accomplishment and thorough knowledge, or efficiency in 
consumption, utilization, and appreciation? 

(d) The relation of the particular elements of approved 
value to the entire field of knowledge to which they belong. 
Are the various constituent elements which go to make up 
the body of any field of knowledge or any science (in the 
general sense) extensive enough or closely enough interre- 
lated to justify the study of the general field as an organized 
and logically determined science? Are they isolated values 
or dependent values? 

(e) The extent to which pre-secondary education or the 
informal education of life does not and cannot adequately 
provide training in the elements desired; e.g., how much 
direct value in mathematics is to be found for pupils in 
general after arithmetic has been successfully studied? 

(/ ) The extent to which various elements of a given sub- 
ject, not to any great degree directly applicable to situations 
in life, may be of value for training in subjects or elements 
of subjects which are of direct appHcation in life; e.g., to 
what extent are the elements of algebra or geometry of 
value in the pursuit of other subjects which may have more 
direct bearing on life for the majority of individuals? 

It is obvious that any exact analysis of these factors is 
quite impossible in the present state of our knowledge. In 
a general way, however, it is possible to apply these criteria 
at least to the extent that we may be able to avoid dogmatic 
statement where the fallacies mentioned may be and fre- 
quently are involved. In the chapters on the values of the 



394 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

various subjects of the program of studies in the secondary 
school these criteria will be applied as measures of the direct 
values of the different subjects. 



II. Indirect Values 

1 66. The transfer of improved efficiency. Throughout 
the history of secondary education certain subjects of study 
have occupied prominent positions in the secondary-school 
program on the basis of an assumption, implied or explicitly 
stated, that valuable general abilities may be developed 
through training in specific fields. Until relatively recent 
times such an assumption necessarily followed from the 
prevailing theory of "faculty psychology," which postulated 
that the mind was made up of a number of practically inde- 
pendent "faculties,*' such as the faculty of memory, the 
faculty of attention, the faculty of reasoning, and the like. 
It was held that these independent "faculties'* trained 
through exercise on any given kind of material might then 
be employed in their improved efliciency on any other 
material, just as the muscles of the body trained by any 
given kind of exercise might be employed in their improved 
efficiency on any other form of exercise or labor. With the 
rise of modern psychology the theory of "faculty psychol- 
ogy*' was relegated to the hmbo of discarded absurdities 
and the necessity arose for a reexamination of indirect or 
general values and the statement of such values in terms of 
modern psychological theory. Such a reexamination involves 
the consideration of at least four related problems: 

(1) Is it possible that efficiency improved through exer- 
cise on material (in studies) of one kind may be applied to 
material in a different field .^^ Is there such a thing as the 
transfer or spread of improved efficiency? (2) If such 
transfer or spread of improved efficiency is possible, what is 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 395 

the mode of its operation? (3) If it is possible, what is its 
probable extent? (4) If it is possible, are there any subjects 
, of study which possess important transfer values? 

167. Is transfer or spread a reality? In spite of the severe 
attacks which have been directed against theories of the 
transfer or spread of improved efficiency, apparently no one 
denies its existence and the first problem propounded may 
be answered at once in the affirmative. Thus, as representing 
two opposing schools of thought as far as other problems of 
transfer values are concerned, we may note the agreement 
of Thorndike and Judd. Thus Thorndike states: ^ 

No one can doubt that aU of the ordinary forms of home or school 
training have some influence upon mental traits in addition to the 
specific changes which they make in the particular function the 
improvement of which is their direct object. On the other hand, 
no careful observer would assert that the influence upon the other 
mental traits is comparable in amount to that upon the direct 
object of training. — The real question is not, 'Does improvement 
of one function alter others?' but, *To what extent, and how, 
does it?' 

And Judd: 2 

Special emphasis may furthermore be laid on the fact that there 
is no one who denies that some kind of transfer takes place. The 
real questions at issue are what is the degree of transfer and what 
is its method? 

As stated in the two quotations the vital problems be- 
come: What of the manner in which transfer or spread of 
improved efficiency takes place? and, Is the extent of trans- 
fer or spread sufficient to warrant any emphasis on it in 
determining the relative values of subjects of study in the 

1 Thorndike, E. L., The Psychology 0/ Learning, p. 358. This and follow- 
ing quotations are made with the permission of the publishers. Teachers 
College Bureau of Publications. 

"^ Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, p. 404. Quoted 
with the permission of the publishers, Ginn and Company. 



396 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

school? We may proceed at once, therefore, to the consid- 
eration of those two problems which are, of com-se, closely 
related. 

i68. What is the mode of transfer or spread? Considera- 
tion of this problem may be introduced by quotations illus- 
trating two "diametrically opposed'* views. Thus Thorn- 
dike :i 

The answer which I shall try to defend is that a change in one 
function alters any other only in so far as the two functions have 
as factors identical elements. The change in the second function is 
in amount that due to the change in the elements common to it 
and the first. The change is simply the necessary result upon the 
second function of the alteration of those of its factors which were 
elements of the first function, and so were altered by its training. . . . 

Chief amongst such identical elements of practical importance 
in education are associations including ideas about aims and ideas 
of method and general principles, and associations involving ele- 
mentary facts of experience such as length, color, number, which 
are repeated again and again in different combinations. 

By identical elements are meant mental processes which have 
the same cell action in the brain as their physical correlate. 

Quite different is this from the theory of Judd that " trans- 
fer depends on the power of generalization " which empha- 
sizes the fact that the power to generalize on the basis of 
specific experience is an original datum of the mind, always 
potential but depending for its emergence on training. 

When one studies the psychology of generalization he becomes 
aware of the uselessness of some of the formulas which have been 
proposed by those who hold that transfer of training takes place 
in cases where there are identical elements present. The identical 
element is usually contributed by the generalizing mind. On the 
other hand, there may be identical elements potentially present in 
various situations, but wholly unobserved by the untrained or 
lethargic mind. In fact, the discovery of the identical element in a 
situation is in some cases the whole problem of training. ^ 

1 Thorndike. E. L., op. cit, pp. 358-59. 2 Judd, C. H., op. cit, p. 414. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 397 

In the same fashion we may show that the principles of intel- 
lectual economy which Thorndike frequently includes in his state- 
ment of identical modes of procedure, namely, the principles that 
one can learn to avoid distractions of all sorts, or that he can refuse 
to give up a piece of work even when it is uncomfortable, represent 
generalized identities of procedure which are not always realized. 
In all these cases we must distmguish sharply between the possi- 
bility of identical modes of procedure and the actual achievement 
of this identity. Such an achievement depends upon the exercise 
of trained intelligence. The existence of possible modes of proce- 
dure does not invariably lead to their realization in fact.^ 

These views have been presented, not for the purpose of 
analysis or criticism, but as illustrative of different ap- 
proaches to the problem of the method by which the trans- 
fer or spread of improved efficiency operates. The treat- 
ment of the problem in the following sections involves some 
of the elements found in the theory of Thorndike and some 
found in the theory of Judd. To the writer, at least, the two 
theories formulated by those psychologists are by no means 
irreconcilable in all respects. 

169. Transfer or spread dependent on dissociation. 
No two situations in life calling for action on the part of any 
individual are ever exactly alike in all respects. Hence 
training for an absolutely fixed and specific reaction to any 
given situation is an impossible and valueless process. 
Strictly speaking there is no such thing as specific discipline. 
Fortunately for the economy of mental life and efficiency 
in behavior it is possible for the mind to select certain parts 
of any total situation and react to those parts with a mini- 
mum of attention to other parts of the total situation. 
Since such parts of total situations may be essentially the 
same it is possible to establish what in all important respects 
are specific situation-response connections, and hence it is 
possible to assign values to specific discipline. However, 
» Judd, C. H., op. cit., p. 416. 



398 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

through this same characteristic of the human mind comes 
also the possibiUty of abstracting from a number of total 
specific situations, differing with respect to most of their 
constituent elements, any given element which may be com- 
mon to all the total situations or a majority of them. Thus 
we get the law of dissociation expressed by Thorndike as 
follows: ^ 

Any element of mental life which is felt as a part of many total 
mental states, differing in all else save its presence, comes thereby 
to be felt as an idea by itself, and any movement which has been 
made as a part of many complex movements differing in all else 
save its presence comes thereby to be made as a movement by 
itself. 

It is upon this process of dissociation that the abstraction 
of any general law, idea, principle, method, or the like must 
rest and the process of developing abstract or general ideas 
is a process of dissociation. Since the law itself is but an 
expression of a mode of mental life which is innate it merely 
expresses the " power of generalization" which is innate in 
the human mind and must be considered as an original 
datum without which the growth of mental life would be 
impossible. 

The basis of the transfer or spread of improved efficiency 
is found in this law of dissociation or generalization. Just 
as a knowledge of sixness is acquired from experiencing 
its manifestation in six apples, six marbles, six men, etc., 
just as a knowledge of whiteness is acquired from experienc- 
ing its manifestation in white paper, white paint, white 
snow, white cats, etc., just as the meaning of number is 
acquired from experiencing its various manifestations in two 
objects, ten objects, etc., just as a concept of honesty is 
acquired from its manifestation in divers forms; just as a 
general principle of grammar, of mathematics, of science, of 

1 Thorndike, E. L., Elements of Psychology, p. 217 (2d edition, 1907). 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 399 

economics, is acquired by experiencing its manifestation in 
varying circumstances, — just so an idea of accuracy, an 
ideal of thoroughness, a concept of method, a habit of work, 
or the Hke, may be abstracted from its manifestation in 
varied fields and may be generalized on the basis of differ- 
ing specific experiences. In all these cases the funda- 
mental process is the same and the method of transfer or 
spread of improved efficiency is nothing more, nothing less, 
than the ordinary process of dissociation or generalization. 
Whether or not dissociation or generalization takes place 
depends on two factors — the mental attitude or " mind- 
set '* which the individual brings to the situation, and the 
character of the situation experienced. Subjective elements 
are no less important than objective elements. It is per- 
fectly possible for generalization to be potential in any set 
of situations without that generalization taking place be- 
cause of the mind's attention to other elements than those 
involved in the dissociative element. On the other hand, it 
is perfectly possible for the mental attitude to project into 
objective situations a generalizing factor that is not highly 
fostered by the situation itself apart from subjective ele- 
ments, though always there must be something in the objec- 
tive situation to which the mind-set may be attached. 

170. Factors which foster and facilitate dissociation. 
While dissociation and generalization are normal processes 
of the human mind and while they may be expected to 
operate with or without direction in the school, it is also true 
that certain factors may be arranged as to foster and facili- 
tate the processes. The essential factors involved are four: ^ 
(1) A number of total situations must be experienced in 
which (a) the element to be dissociated and general- 
ized is present in prominence, and (6) the other ele- 
ments of the situation vary; 

* Cf. Thorndike, E. L., Principles of Teaching, p. 135. 



400 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

(2) The element to be dissociated and generalized must be 
brought into the field of focal attention; 

(3) The element to be dissociated and generalized must 
be of such a character that it may be held in the mind 
as a separate element. This is commonly facilitated 
when a distinguishing name or other symbol may be 
attached, or when a generalized definition or law is 
formulated; 

(4) Practice must be given in applying the dissociated 
and generalized element in new situations. 

Since dissociation is the basis of the transfer or spread of 
improved efficiency and since the extensive operation of 
dissociation is fostered by these factors, it is clear that any 
subject of study which does not permit the organization of 
materials in teaching so as to meet the conditions suggested 
cannot be expected to offer the most favorable opportunities 
for transfer. Further, it is clear that, as far as indirect val- 
ues are concerned, subjects of study may to some extent be 
measured according to the degree in which those conditions 
can be met. Moreover, since the method by which material 
is presented is also involved in meeting 'those conditions, it 
follows that transfer cannot be expected to operate most 
effectively, unless both subject-matter and the method of 
teaching are adapted to the conditions favoring the process 
of dissociation and generalization. Hence the emphasis by 
Judd and Sleight on the importance of teaching method 
in connection with the problems of transfer.^ 

171. The above principles illustrated. The principles 
above outlined may be understood more clearly if applied 
to studies in the secondary school. Prominent among the 
conditions necessary to facilitate the transfer of any idea, 
principle, method, law, ideal, or the like, is that which de- 

1 Judd., op. cit, pp. 423-24, 432/.; Sleight, W. G., Educational Values 
and Methods, p. 171. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 401 

mands that the element to be dissociated and generahzed 
must remain essentially constant and that the other ele- 
ments which are constituents of the total situations must 
vary. If, on the other hand, two or more elements remain 
constant, the resulting tendency is for those elements to be 
bound together more and more closely. Thus, let it be 
assumed that we wish to dissociate the element A from a 
number of total situations all of which contain that one ele- 
ment, but always in connection with other elements. Now, 
as long as the total situations have A as the only important 
constant element, conditions are favorable for the abstrac- 
tion of A as a separate element. Thus in the total situations 
represented by the following combinations of elements, — 



(1) 


A B C D E F 


(2) 


A G H I J K 


(3) 


A L M N P 


(4) 


A Q R S T U 


(-) 


etc., etc.. 



conditions are favorable for the dissociation of the element 
A, the only element common to all. If, on the other hand, 
two elements, A and B, are constant in the total situations 
experienced, the resulting tendency will be to dissociate 
those elements together, and further to establish a strong 
association between A and B, so that the two elements are 
grouped and neither A nor B is dissociated by itself. Thus 
in such total situations as may be represented by the com- 
binations of elements, — 



(1) 


A B C D E F 


(2) 


A B G H I J 


(3) 


A B K L M N 


(4) 


A B O Q PR 


(-) 


etc., etc.. 



conditions are favorable for the dissociation of AB but not 
of A or B alone, and the conditions favor the constant 



402 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

association of the two elements which remain constant in 
the total situations experienced. 

In the majority, if not all, of the subjects of study in the 
secondary school this is precisely the situation which arises to 
limit the transfer or spread of improved efficiency, partly as 
a result of the subject-matter employed, partly as a result of 
the methods of teaching. The fact will appear more clearly 
if we take a concrete illustration, e.g., from the jBeld of geom- 
etry as commonly taught. Assume that it is desired through 
the study of geometry to develop a generalized method to be 
employed in the reflective thinking (reasoning) involved in 
problem solving — an element which is certainly involved 
in the processes of geometry and in every other field of men- 
tal activity. Call that element A. If we wish to facilitate 
the process of its dissociation it must be kept constant in the 
teaching of geometry. But also other elements in the total 
situations must be made to vary. It is here that difficulty 
arises, since it is extremely difficult to prevent certain other 
elements from remaining constant. Thus there is always 
present an element which makes it possible for us to recog- 
nize that we are dealing with geometry — certain concepts 
of space and number relations, and certain elements peculiar 
to the mathematics " class," classroom, or teacher. Some 
of those elements remain constant in spite of attempts to 
vary elements of specific content, exercises, problems, etc. 
Hence the normal situations in teaching geometry may be 
represented by such combinations of elements as 



(1) 


ABC D E F 


(2) 


ABC G H I 


(3) 


ABC J K L 


(4) 


A B C M N 


(-) 


etc., etc.. 



and as a result conditions favor not the dissociation of the 
desired element A, but the constant association of ABC. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 403 

Thus in the great majority of cases the teaching of geometry 
in our secondary schools tends to favor, not the isolation 
and generalization of general methods of reflective thinking 
related to problem solving, but the close association of such 
methods to elements of geometrical content — a situation 
to some extent interfering with the process of transfer. 

This does not, however, mean that such dissociation and 
subsequent transfer is impossible. Any such conclusion 
would imply that all the individual's experiences in reflec- 
tive thinking and problem solving outside the geometry 
classroom are isolated from his experiences in that class- 
room, and would leave out of account or minimize the innate 
capacity of the mind to generalize on the basis of such other 
experiences — a capacity differing among individuals appar- 
ently according to original endowment. It would also leave 
out of account the possibility that the desired method, prin- 
ciple, or the like, may be isolated by the teacher or other 
individual and raised into consciousness in terms of a general 
law, rule, maxim, etc., expressed in terms which do not spe- 
cifically associate content elements. Hence the bearing of 
Bagley's statement: ^ 

Unless the ideal has been developed consciously, there can be 
no certainty that the power will be increased, no matter how in- 
trinsically well the subject may have been mastered. 

Hence also the importance attached by Thorndike to con- 
nections " that carry vital maxims, notions of method, ideals 
of accuracy, persistence, verification, openmindedness and 
the like." ^ Likewise we find here the significance of the fact 
that in Squire's experiment the development of neatness in 
the case of arithmetic papers through training did not gen- 
eralize neatness so as to function in geography and language 

* Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, p^ 216. 

* Thorndike, E. L„ The Psychology of Learning, p. 421. 



404 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

papers,^ but, when the same experiment was repeated by 
Ruediger with emphasis on the conscious ideal of neatness as 
a general element, a general transfer of neatness was the 
result. 2 

172. An answer to problem 2. The transfer or spread of 
improved efficiency has its basis on the process of dissocia- 
tion, which is a normal process depending on the innate 
capacity of the mind to generalize on the basis of limited, 
specific experiences. Such a process will take place to some 
extent with or without definite provision in the school. Its 
effective operation, however, may be fostered and facilitated 
by providing recognized favorable conditions. Whenever 
any element may be found which is a constituent of situa- 
tions in different fields involving differing objective materials 
or content, the dissociation, generalization, and transfer of 
that element is always a potentiality. Whether or not it 
becomes an actuality depends in large degree on the estab- 
lishment of some or all of the conditions favoring the proc- 
ess which have been described above. This involves both 
the character of the materials employed and the teaching 
methods used. 

In passing, attention may be called to the fact that the 
mere existence of common objective elements in varying 
situations will not necessarily lead to dissociation and gen- 
eralization. In fact it is by no means improbable that 
greater emphasis should be placed on subjective elements. 
Unless common objective elements are foimd in the varying 
situations dissociation and transfer are impossible. Also, 
however, unless some common subjective elements are 
found no dissociation and transfer can materialize. The 
possibility of transfer is found in the correlation of common 
objective elements and common subjective elements. This 

1 Bagley, W. C, op. cit, p. 208. 

2 Ruediger, W. C, The Principles of Education, pp. 108-10. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 405 

means that dissociation and transfer are not entirely auto- 
matic. The conception that transfer will always be actual 
where it is possible is a common error invalidating many 
studies in this field. 

173. Problem 3 : What is the extent of transfer ? In many 
ways the most important problem involved in the matter 
of the transfer or spread of improved efficiency concerns its 
probable extent. Is the transfer insignificant in amount so 
that for all practical purposes it may be ignored in questions 
of educational values, or is it sufficiently extensive to war- 
rant careful consideration in attempting to evaluate subjects 
and methods of teaching? This is the question which must 
be considered in connection with problem 3. 

Before attempting to discuss the extent of the transfer 
or spread of improved efficiency a word of warning is desir- 
able. The main reason for troubling ourselves about prob- 
lems of the transfer of improved efficiency is, of course, that, 
if it is a reality and if it is appreciable in amount, it provides 
for economy in education. Statements like the following are 
common : " General discipline teaches that we should learn to 
do A in order that we may be able to do B. Why not learn 
to do A in order to learn to do A, and learn to do B in order 
to do ^? Why not learn to walk in order to walk, learn to 
run in order to run, and learn to swim in order to swim.'^ " ^ 
Any such statement ignores the fundamental problem of 
transfer. The sole justification for any possible emphasis on 
"general discipline " would be that it is general, i.e., that 
through training in A one may be better equipped thereby, 
not only for B, but also for C, D, E, F, etc., — for a wide 
variety of activities. In this connection three facts should 
be kept in mind: 

(1) The most enthusiastic proponent of transfer values 
could not claim that efficiency developed in the function 

* Cf . Moore, E. C, in School and Society, vol. vi, p. 482, end of column 2. 



406 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

which has been the direct object of special training can be 
carried over unimpaired and without loss into functions 
which have not received direct training. The most that 
could be claimed is that an initial impetus may thereby be 
given to the related activities and the acquirement oi effi- 
ciency in the related activities may be facilitated. 

(2) The possible extent and importance of the transfer 
or spread of improved efficiency is to be measured by the 
sum total of its applications. If we represent the amounts of 

the transfer in various activities by ai, a2, as, fln, 

and represent the number of occasions in each case by 

h, t2t tsf ^n, it is clear that the extent of the 

transfer value in any instance is to be measured by the 
formula 

It is manifestly absurd to attempt to measure the extent 
and value of transfer by a comparison of the amount of 
improvement in the function which is the object of direct 
training and another single function which may be affected 
indirectly thereby. If there is any value to be attached to 
" general training " it is because it does apply to a relatively 
wide range of activities, not to any single activity. Hence 
the pertinence of Thorndike's statement: ^ 

Finally, it must be remembered that a very small spread of 
training may be of very great educational value if it extends over a 
wide enough field. If a hundred hours of training in being scientific 
about chemistry produced only one hundredth as much improve- 
ment in being scientific about all sorts of facts, it would yet be a 
very remunerative educational force. 

Hence also the absurdity of the implications in Sleight's 
statements: 2 

1 Thorndike, E. L., The Psychology of Learning, pp. 421-22. 

2 Sleight, W. G., Educational Values and Metliodsy p. 73. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 407 

In those few cases where improvement was brought about in one 
exercise through practice in another, as for example where practice 
in tables resulted in a development of power to memorize dates, 
the improvement is never equal to that made in the practice 
medium itself. In other words, the *' indirect" is always less than 
the *' direct" improvement. A computation showed that "direct" 
was worth, on the average, about 144 times "indirect" practice. 
Without attaching too much importance to the exact figures, there 
is ample evidence that the effects of "direct" outweigh immeas- 
urably those of "indirect" training, and differentially that the 
schools have occasionally wasted most valuable time. 

The inequality of " direct " and *' indirect " training in 
any single case should be obvious. It should also be obvious 
that the importance of transfer is not to be measured in 
that way alone. 

(3) It must be remembered that the capacity to general- 
ize on the basis of limited specific experiences varies among 
individuals and that with any given amount of training 
given to members of a group the possibility and the extent 
of the transfer or spread of improved efliciency are varying 
quantities. It must further be recognized that the extent 
of transfer to be looked for is in part determined by the 
extent to which conditions are made favorable for the 
process of dissociation, again varying with respect to indi- 
viduals. 

The amount and extent of the transfer or spread of im- 
proved efficiency may be estimated in one or both of two 
ways: (a) through an examination of the results of experi- 
mental investigations; (b) through a study of the implica- 
tions of general psychological theory. These are considered 
in the following sections. 

174. The results of experimental investigations. The 
mere enumeration of the various experimental investiga- 
tions designed to determine the mode and extent of the 
transfer or spread of improved efficiency would carry us far 



408 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

beyond the limits of space here available. Likewise any 
detailed criticism of the methods employed or the conclu- 
sions drawn is here impossible.^ All that may be attempted 
here is a general statement of facts which have apparently 
emerged from the several experiments made. 

(1) The science of experimental psychology, in spite of 
its rapid and promising development within recent years, 
is still in its infancy. Hence the tools which experimental 
pedagogy must employ are as yet of the crudest. 

(2) The experimental facts so far determined are rela- 
tively trivial when compared with the facts which must be 
determined before we can secure measurements of the trans- 
fer or spread of improved efl&ciency in the case of school 
studies or the occupations of life. 

(3) The results of experimental investigations are con- 
fused and confusing, many being in direct conflict. Taken 
together, they resist organization into any clear-cut state- 
ment of the extent of the effect of special training on general 
ability. In addition faulty methods employed in many cases 
quite invalidate the results obtained and the conclusions 
drawn. 

(4) By far the greater part of the experiments indicate 
that the transfer of improved efficiency is a reality. Never- 
theless they also indicate that previous assumptions of a 
wholesale and automatic transfer are untenable. 

These experiments also show, even by their indefinite and con- 
fused results, the complexity of the facilitating and interfering 
relations amongst man's hierarchies of habits. We see the possi- 
bility of a disciplinary effect where superficial observation would 
have expected none, the difficulty of transfer in a case where specu- 
lative and verbal thinking would have assumed that it was easy, 

^ For extended discussion of experiments made the reader is referred to 
references given at the close of this chapter, especially, Thorndike, Heck, 
Colvin, Judd, Ruediger, Henderson, Sleight, Rugg, Coover. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 409 

and, in general, the ignorance that we suffer from concerning the 
internal constituents of almost every act of learning.^ 

(5) In general experiments have suggested the possibility 
of interference as well as of transfer. 

(6) To date experiments on memories have resulted in 
the most satisfactory evidence, indicating in general little 
transfer, except as improvement in methods of learning, 
etc., is involved. 

(7) Experiments have suggested that, even where trans- 
fer or spread of improved efficiency is found, its emergence 
is not automatic but dependent to a considerable extent on 
the methods employed in training. 

We may conclude that experimental evidence, while sug- 
gestive and indicative that older notions of general disci- 
pline are untenable, has as yet done relatively little to deter- 
mine either the mode or extent of the transfer or spread of 
improved efficiency. We are therefore forced back on the 
field of general educational theory to a considerable extent. 
However unsatisfactory that may be, for the present we 
cannot do otherwise than consider its implications, with 
the hope and faith that improved methods of experimental 
psychology may soon afford more satisfactory evidence. 

175. Implications of psychological theory. In discussing 
the method of the operation of the transfer or spread of 
improved efficiency it was suggested that it rests on the 
process of dissociation. In that connection it was pointed 
out that some transfer will take place wherever there is a 
real element to be transferred through generalization. It 
was also pointed out, however, that if conditions are made 
favorable the possibility of generalization and transfer is 
increased. It follows, therefore, that transfer in any case is 
not a constant and cannot be considered as operating auto- 

* Thorndike, E. L., The Psychology of Learning, p. 417. 



410 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

matically. The resultant emphasis on methods of teaching 
and training is great. If these theories are sound it is clear 
that the extent of the transfer or spread of improved effi- 
ciency is conditioned by at least three factors : (a) the char- 
acter of the materials (objective elements) involved; (6) the 
capacities of individuals to generalize and subjective ele- 
ments brought to situations by individuals; and (c) the 
methods of training provided. All of these factors are vari- 
able and hence the extent of transfer or spread which de- 
pends on them must itseK be a variable matter. In this 
connection it should be noted that, with respect to the 
psychology of learning, any attempt to dissociate materials 
from methods of experiencing them is erroneous and useless. 
From a pedagogical viewpoint the character of objective 
material is inextricably associated with the way in which it 
is experienced. Things, objects, ideals, etc., have no mean- 
ing for the individual other than as he experiences them. 
To say that generalization and transfer has no importance 
with respect to the values of educative materials but is 
important with respect to method ignores the fact that the 
character of materials in part determines methods of train- 
ing and that methods of training in part determine the 
character of the materials as far as their effect on the indi- 
vidual is concerned. An antithesis of materials and methods 
is psychologically and pedagogically false. 

176. Problem 4: the transfer values of studies. The prob- 
lem of the transfer values claimed for various subjects of 
study in the secondary-school program is considered in con- 
nection with the several studies dealt with in following chap- 
ters. The general problem only will be considered in this 
section. 

In time, it is to be hoped, experimental psychology will 
answer our present problem in undebatable terms. At pres- 
ent it cannot do so and again we are forced back on the 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 411 

implications of general psychological theory. Following the 
line of thought suggested in the preceding sections we may 
arrive at certain conclusions. The capacity for generaliza- 
tion is native in the human mind and is not confined or lim- 
ited to any special objective material. Hence it may be 
assmned that any kind of material may serve as basis for 
generalization and for transfer values. On the other hand, 
it has been suggested that the manner in which such material 
is organized and presented to the mind is of the highest 
importance and in reality the manner of such presentation 
cannot be divorced entirely from the character of the 
materials with which it is concerned. It has further been 
suggested that the amount of generalization actually accom- 
plished is dependent on the provision for meeting certain 
conditions which foster and facilitate dissociation or general- 
ization. Subjects of study differ noticeably in the degree in 
which their materials may be or have been organized with 
respect to those conditions. Thus it is relatively easy to 
organize the materials of mathematics so as to facilitate the 
dissociation of methods of reflective thinking involved in 
problem solving — within the field of mathematics. In his- 
tory, on the other hand, manipulation of its materials for 
such a purpose within its own field is relatively difficult. 
Thus there is a great difference between those two subjects 
affecting the conditions which primarily affect generaliza- 
tion and dissociation, even within their own respective 
fields. Whatever we may think about the possibility of 
transferring those methods to other fields, we must recognize 
that it cannot take place unless those original conditions 
are met. Thus also it must be recognized that the transfer 
of improved efficiency is not automatic and that if it is 
desired it must be deliberately sought through the organi- 
zation of materials and teaching methods adapted to that 
end. Subjects whose primary aims in the secondary school 



412 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

look toward specific ends can provide but a limited amount 
of transfer values. Subjects of study whose primary pur- 
poses are the development of generalized traits can produce 
but limited specific values. Subjects of study which aim at 
both ends at once are likely to produce limited results in 
both. With various subjects of study different ends may, 
possibly, be desirable. In passing it may be well to say that 
as at present organized and taught few studies are well 
adapted to any of those ends. 

III. General Analysis of the Program of Studies 

177. The evolution of the program in America. The his- 
tory of the development of the program of studies in the 
American pubHc secondary school is illuminating in many 
ways and affords clear evidence of the shifting values as- 
signed in contemporary theory and practice at different 
periods. Thus an examination of the data provided in 
Table CXVIII shows that three main periods may be rather 
definitely described in terms of the prominence attached to 
different classes of subject matter. During the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries dominant values in public second- 
ary education in this country were attached to the human- 
istic studies. During the nineteenth century such human- 
istic studies gave way in part to natural sciences, although 
retaining much of their former prestige. Toward the close 
of the nineteenth century directly vocational studies began 
to become important and give signs of becoming increasingly 
important at the present time. 

A study of the history of the program of studies of the 
secondary school shows clearly that the values attached to 
different subjects of study have varied at different times. 
Thus the study of logic was deemed sufficiently valuable to 
be included in the State requirements in Massachusetts from 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 413 

Table CXVIII. Subjects of Study introduced at Different 
Times into the Program of Studies of the Public Second- 
ary School of America * 

English : Reading (1821?), Writing (1821 or 1635), Spelling (1821 or 1635), 
Grammar (1821 or 1635), Composition (1821 or 1635), Rhetoric (1823 or 
1635), Declamation (1821?), Literature (1821), Forensics (1821), Etymology 
(1839), History of English Literature (1841). 

Foreign Language: Latin (1635), Greek (1635), French (1826), German 
(1838), Spanish (1830), Italian (1843), Anglo-Saxon (1850). 

Mathematics: Arithmetic (1814-1821), Algebra (1814-1821), Geometry 
(1814-1821), Trigonometry (1814-1821), Surveying (1821), Navigation 
(1821), Mensuration (1821), Analytical Geometry (1839), Differential 
Calculus (1841). 

Sciences: Physics or Natural Philosophy (1821), Chemistry (1826), As- 
tronomy (1821), Physiology (1839), Botany (1826), Geology (1837?), 
Zoology (1842), Hygiene (1839), Mineralogy (1837?), Natural History 
(1833), Meteorology (1852), Mechanics (1839), Physical Geography (1852?), 
Anatomy (1837), Technology (1851), Engineering (1852), Medicine and 
Surgery (1852?), Household Science (1858), General Science ("Elements of 
Arts and Sciences," 1823), Agricultural Chemistry (1845). 

Social Sciences : History of the United States (1821), General History 
(1823), History of Civilization (1849), Ancient History (1821 or 1635), 
Mediaeval History (1842), Modern History (1821), History of England 
(1814-1828), History of France (1827?), History of a single Federal State 
(1839), Constitution of the United States (1828), Constitution of a single 
Federal State (1840), City Government (1842), "Community Civics" 
(1849), Political Philosophy (1821), Political Economy (1821), Ancient 
Geography (1821 or 1635), Sacred Geography (1823), Modern Geography 
(1821), Ethics (1839), Moral Philosophy (1821), Natural Theology (1823), 
Evidences of Christianity (1823). 

Other Subjects : Logic (1821), Intellectual Philosophy (1829), Bookkeep- 
ing (1823), Commerce (1838), Sewing (1840), Stenography (1849), Manual 
Training (1880), and all the various vocational and industrial subjects in- 
troduced within the past two or three decades; Drawing (1826), Music 
(1837). 

* Table compiled from numerous sources. The first appearance of many subjects in the 
public secondary school is diflScult to determine. The above dates are, however, fairly sure. 

1827 to 1898. It is seldom if ever found in a secondary- 
school program at present. Thus botany, astronomy, 
geology, intellectual science (psychology), moral science 
(ethics) were required in certain high schools in that State 
from 1857 to 1898. Of these some have survived and others 



414, PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

disappeared. Of all the various subjects mentioned in the 
above list of subjects in the program of studies in the public 
secondary school and others which should be added to make 
the list complete twenty-one enrolled as large a proportion 
as B.ye per cent of the total public high-school population 
in 1915. 

178. The relative prominence of various subjects. While 
it is not easy to determine the relative values attached to 
the various subjects of study in the secondary-school pro- 

Table CXIX. Percentages of Pupils in Public High 
Schools pursuing Certain Studies * 



Subjects of study 



Latin 

Greek 

French 

German 

Spanish 

Algebra 

Geometry 

Trigonometry 

Astronomy 

Physics 

Chemistry 

Physical geography. 

Zoology 

Botany... 

General biology . . . . 

Geology 

Physiology 

Psychology 

Rhetoric 

English literature.. . 

History 

Civil government. . . 
Civics 

Agriculture 

Domestic economy. , 

Industrial . . 

Manual training. . . . 

Drawing 

Vocal music 

Bookkeeping 



1889- 


189i- 


1899- 


1901t- 


1909- 


19U- 


1890 
34.69 


1895 


1900 


1905 


1910 


1915 


43.97 


50.61 


50.21 


49.05 


37.32 


3.05 


3.10 


2.85 


1.47 


.75 


.29 


5.84 


6.52 


7.78 


9.14 


9.90 


8.80 


10.51 


11.40 


14.33 


20.25 


23.69 
.67 


24.39 
2.39 


45.40 


54.27 


56.29 


57.51 


56.85 


48.84 


21.33 


25.34 


27.39 


28.16 


80.87 


26.55 




2.53 


1.91 


1.71 


1.87 


1.48 




4.79 


2.78 


1.22 


.53 


,28 


22.21 


22.77 


19.04 


15.66 


14.61 


14.23 


10.10 


9.15 


7.72 


6.76 


6.89 


7.38 


•::• 


23.89 


23.37 


21.62 


19.34 

8.02 

16.83 


14.58 
3.21 
9.14 
6.90 




5.60 


3.61 


2.34 


1.16 


.48 




29.95 


27.42 


21.96 


15.32 


9.48 




2.74 


2.38 


1.31 


.96 


1.17 




32.05 


38.48 


48.54 


57.10 


58.42 






42.10 


49.34 


57.09 


55.82 


27.31 


34.33 


38.16 


40.88 


55.03 


50.54 


... 


... 
. . • 


21.66 


17.97 


15.55 

4.66 
3.78 


8.64 
7.08 

7.17 
12.89 
.81 
11.17 
22.87 
31.60 

3.42 



Total 
number 
19H-15 



434,926 

3,351 

102,516 

284,294 

31,743 

669,215 

309,383 

17,220 

3,224 

165.854 

86,031 

169,911 

37,456 

106,520 

80,403 

6,558 

110,541 

13,626 
680,871 
650,613 
689,067 
100,736 

82,588 

83,673 
160,276 
9,424 
130,165 
266,492 
367,188 

39,816 



No such figures are accessible for other subjects in the program of studies in the second- 
ary school. 

* Report qf the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. 11, p. 487. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 



415 



Per 

<Jent 
60 



Pep 

Cent 
60 



;|/3cW. 




ISj^o i<jy{) lyOO 1005 lUlO 

Figure V. Illustratinq Table CXIX 



1716 



gram at present, valuable information (as far as it goes) 
may be gained from the data presented in Table CXIX and 
in Figure V. Unfortunately the reports of the Federal 
Commissioner of Education supply data for certain subjects 
of study only, and fail to supply desirable data for other 
subjects, especially subjects of a technical, vocational, and 
industrial character. It is also unfortunate that the data 
available do not afford information in terms of the numbers 
and proportions of all pupils who somewhere in their high- 
school courses study the various subjects. 



416 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

In interpreting these statistics certain facts should be 
noted: 

(1) The practice, common to the majority of secondary 
schools, of requiring all pupils, or certain groups of pupils, 
to study certain subjects, e.g., English, algebra, tends to 
raise the proportions of pupils studying those subjects, and 
the figures, therefore, cannot be taken as measuring the 
appeal of the subjects to pupils. 

(2) In some cases the unit of study does not stand out 
clearly as a separate subject and hence figures reported fre- 
quently represent a number of pupils in excess of those 
taking a separate and distinct course in the subject. Thus 
possibly with rhetoric or civics. 

(3) In some cases the sequential character of the work 
in a subject, tending to involve two, three, or four years for 
the completion of the subject, gives an appearance of greater 
support than would otherwise be indicated. Thus history is 
grouped under one title. Latin, engaging about one third of 
the pupils in the secondary schools in 1915, may not have 
affected more individuals than German, a subject which was 
pursued in 1915 by approximately one quarter of all second- 
ary-school pupils — Latin at that time commonly compris- 
ing a four-year course and German commonly comprising 
a two- or three-year course. 

(4) Within the past two decades the proportion of pupils 
studying any single natural science has apparently de- 
creased. Whether or not this means that the total number 
of pupils studying natural science in some of its phases has 
decreased the figures afford us no means of deciding. In this 
connection it should be noted that no figures are presented 
in the table above for general science, applied science in 
agriculture, etc. 

(5) Attempts to determine the proportions of pupils 
engaged in the study of "foreign languages," "natural 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 417 

science," etc., by adding together the different percentages 
of the separate languages, sciences, etc., involve a serious 
error and represent no real situation, since a large number of 
pupils is engaged in studying two or more languages, two 
or more sciences at the same time. 

179. The necessity of selection. It is obvious that all the 
subjects now found in the program of studies of the second- 
ary school cannot and should not be studied by all pupils. 
Selection is therefore a necessity and, since it is a necessity, 
it follows that some means must be devised to determine the 
relative values of the various subjects of study as a basis 
for such selection. It was pointed out in the first part of 
this chapter that the various subjects of study are to be 
evaluated in terms of the degree in which those subjects 
contribute to the aims and functions of secondary education. 
It was also pointed out that that contribution might be 
direct or indirect. One may readily recognize that certain 
social studies may contribute directly to the social-civic aim 
of secondary education in such a way that the values of 
those subjects will be imiversal and direct. One may readily 
recognize that other subjects may contribute directly to the 
vocational-economic aim of secondary education in such a 
way that the values of those subjects will be direct and lim- 
ited or contingent. However, after such analysis of direct 
values has been accomplished there still remain in the pro- 
gram of studies as at present organized certain subjects 
whose values, if they possess important values, cannot be 
stated in terms of direct contribution to the aims of second- 
ary education and other subjects whose position and popu- 
larity in the secondary-school program cannot be justified 
by reliance on direct but limited or contingent values. Thus 
it cannot be maintained seriously that one half of the pupils 
in the secondary school in 1910 were justified in studying 
Latin on the basis of its direct values. Neither can one jus- 



418 PKINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tify on the grounds of direct values alone the study of Ger- 
man by nearly one quarter of the boys and girls in the public 
secondary schools. Further, the study of algebra, undoubted 
though its limited or contingent direct values are, cannot be 
justified for nearly all pupils in the first year of the public 
secondary school on the ground of direct values. The same 
is the case with geometry. 

For some of the subjects now found in the secondary- 
school program of studies justification must rest, if justifica- 
tion be found, largely on the indirect values which may be 
attached to them. In the cases of several other subjects of 
study the large proportion of pupils engaged in those sub- 
jects cannot be justified on the basis of direct values alone. 
To the first group belongs Latin. To the second group be- 
long algebra, geometry, and German. The final value of 
subjects of study in the program of the secondary school is, 
therefore, to be determined by an analysis of the degree in 
which the subject may contribute directly or indirectly 
to the aims and functions previously outlined. Such an 
analysis is attempted for the various subjects in the follow- 
ing chapters of this book. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Consider any community of approximately 50,000 inhabitants- Esti- 
mate roughly the proportions of the population who may reasonably 
be expected to have direct use for the various subjects of study in the 
secondary-school program; e.g., what proportion of the inhabitants will 
commonly find opportunity to use algebra or chemistry directly? 

2. Make a critical study of experiments which have been made to solve the 
problem of transfer of improvement. Interpret the conclusions with 
respect to the problem of indirect values in the secondary school. (Cf. 
Rugg, Heck, Ruediger, Thorndike, Coover, in list of references.) 

3. Find specific examples of arguments for direct values of subjects of 
study which involve one or more of the fallacies mentioned in section 
165. 

4. Choose any subject of study in the program of studies of the secondary 
school. Analyze the values commonly claimed for that subject. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 419 

5. Find specific examples of arguments for or- against indirect values of 
subjects of study which involve one or more of the fallacies mentioned 
in section 173. 

6. Classify subjects of study in the program of the secondary school ac- 
cording to the readiness with which the materials may be or are manip- 
ulated for the purpose of facilitating the process of dissociation of any 
important element. 

7. To what degree is it true that "the acceptance of the fundamental doc- 
trine of modern psychology, that there are no faculties in the mind, of 
itself necessitated the abandonment of the doctrine of formal training 
in education." (Moore, E. C, What is Education? p. 99.) 

8. How is the problem of transfer related to the relative values of "pure" 
and "applied" science? (Cf. Colvin, S. S., The Learning Process, pp. 
247/.) • ■ _ •" _ 

9. How is the problem of transfer related to the application of principles, 
methods, etc., within any given field of study? 

10. Give examples of different subjects of study masquerading under the 
same name in the program of study of the secondary school. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bagley, W. C, Educational Values, especially chaps, vn-xv. 

Bagley, W. C, and Snedden, D., "Fundamental Distinctions Between 
Liberal and Vocational Education," Proceedings of the National Educa- 
tion Association (1914), pp. 150-70. 

Colvin, S. S., The Learning Process, chaps. xrv-xvT. 

Coover, J. E., Formal Discipline from the Standpoint of Experimental 
Psychology, Psychological Monographs, vol. xx, no. 3. 

Davis, C. O., High-School Courses of Study, pp. 12-27. 

DeGarmo, C, Principles of Secondary Education, vol. i, "The Studies," pp. 
141-78 (new edition). 

Gillette, J. M., Vocational Education, chaps, ix-x. 

Heck, W. H., Mental Discipline and Educational Values. 

Henderson, E. N., A Textbook in the Principles of Education, chap. x. 

Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, chap. xvn. 

Moore, E. C, What is Education? especially chap. in. 

Parker, S. C, Methods of Teaching in High Schools, chap. ii. 

Ruediger, W. C, Principles of Education, especially pp. 91-224. 

Rugg, H. O., The Experimental Determination of Mental Discipline in School 
Studies. Bibliography. 

Sleight, W. G, Educational Values and Methods. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education. 

Spencer, H., Education, chap, i, "What Knowledge is of Most Worth?" 

Thorndike, E. L., The Psychology of Learning, chap. xii. 

United States Commissioner of Education, Report (1916), vol. ii, pp. 487-528. 

Yocum, A. D., Culture, Discipline, and Democracy. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PLACE OF ENGLISH IN THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 

I. General Considerations 

i8o. The historic dominance of linguistic and literary 
studies. Linguistic and literary studies have tended to 
dominate educational institutions from their very beginning. 
For the Greeks only, and at certain periods only for them, 
would this general statement need to be qualified. In the 
later period of Greek education began the emphasis on 
linguistic and literary studies which they contributed to 
Roman education and which Roman education contrib- 
uted to Europe and America. Throughout the medieval 
period, the Renaissance, and the Reformation education 
in the schools of Europe was almost exclusively linguistic 
and literary, and almost exclusively confined to the study 
of Latin and Greek. This emphasis on the Latin and Greek 
languages and literatures was not surprising, since practically 
all existing knowledge was preserved in those tongues, since 
Latin was the common medium of communication among 
the learned, and since literatures in the vernaculars began 
only as late as the early Renaissance. Even after the rise 
of literatures in the vernaculars, however, secondary edu- 
cation was restricted to the study of the classical languages 
and literatures with attention here and there only to the 
mother tongues and their literatures — a state of affairs 
which persisted until long after the beginning of secondary 
education in America. 

It has already been shown that during the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries secondary education in America 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 421 

was limited to the study of the Latin and Greek. However, 
the practice, common in Europe, of making instruction and 
all language use in the secondary school depend on the ac- 
tual use of Latin, to the exclusion of the mother tongue, was 
never successful and in reality was seldom attempted in the 
American secondary school of the colonial period. Trans- 
lation was regularly employed and the classical languages 
were constantly brought into relation with the mother 
tongue. Thus, while it is true that English literature re- 
ceived little if any attention in the Latin grammar school 
of America, it is a fact that the English language was indi- 
rectly a very real study in the colonial secondary school. 

With the beginning of the realistic movement in educa- 
tion (marked by the beginning of the Realschule in Ger- 
many and by the academy movement in England, Scotland, 
and America) came the direct study of the native language 
and native literature in the secondary school. Through 
the academy the study of the English language and litera- 
ture was contributed to the public high school in the third 
decade of the nineteenth century. From that time the study 
of English has constantly increased in the American second- 
ary school until at the present time it occupies by far the 
most prominent position in the program. Its development 
since 1890 may be estimated in part from the figures pre- 
sented in Table CXIX and from Figure V. 

i8i. The present status of English in the program. At 
the present time English is probably the only study uni- 
versally required of all pupils in the secondary school at 
some stage or stages within the course. Probably one sixth 
of the total time of the high-school course is devoted by 
most pupils to the study of the mother tongue and its liter- 
ature. In this connection we may note current practice in 
Germany and in France. In the last four grades of the Prus- 
sian Gymnasium or Realgymnasium 8.6 per cent of the total 



422 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

time is specifically devoted to the study of German. In 
the Oberrealschule the proportion of time is 10.5 per cent. 
German is required of every pupil in every grade of the 
higher school in Germany. In France a larger proportionate 
amount of time is devoted to the study of French, the per 
cent of the total time ranging from 16.4 for Sections A and 
B to 19.1 for Section D during grades IV-I. Thus it would 
appear that for corresponding grades a larger proportion 
of time is devoted to the study of English in the American 
secondary school than is devoted to the study of German 
in the Prussian higher school, and, possibly, a somewhat 
smaller amount of time than is devoted to the study of 
French in the French higher school. It should be remem- 
bered, however, that both in Germany and France some 
foreign language is prescribed for all pupils in the higher 
schools — a factor of no small importance. 

182. English and the aims of secondary education. The 
readiness with which values may be attached to the study 
of English as contributing to the ultimate aims of secondary 
education tends to permit teachers of English and others to 
neglect the necessity of analyzing the various factors in- 
volved. In English, as much as in the case of any other sub- 
ject, it is necessary to analyze aims, values, materials, and 
methods. This is recognized by the Committee on the High- 
School Course in English when it states: ^ 

These fundamental aims should be implicit in the teacher's atti- 
tude and in the spirit of the class work: (a) Cultural. To open to 
the student new and higher forms of pleasure, (b) Vocational. To 
fit the student for the highest success in his chosen calling, (c) So- 
cial and ethical. To present to the student noble ideals, aid in the 
formation of his character, and make him more efficient and 

^ National Education Association, Report of the Committee on the High- 
School Course in English, pp. 7, 5. Cf. Reorganization of English in Sec- 
ondary Schools, Report by the National Joint Committee on English, 
Bureau of Education Bulletin (1917), no. 2, pp. 30-32. 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 423 

actively interested in his relations with and service to others in the 
community and in the nation. 

The Committee believes that a single statement of aims will 
prove serviceable as a guide to the English work of all schools. 
Stated broadly, it should be the purpose of every English teacher, 
first, to quicken the spirit and kindle the mind and imagination of 
his pupils and to develop habits of weighing and judging human 
conduct, with the hope of leading them to higher living; second, to 
supply the pupils with an effective tool for use in their future pri- 
vate and public hfe, i.e., the best command of language which, 
under the circumstance, can be given them. 

The particular results to be sought may be somewhat specifically 
indicated as follows: 

In general, the immediate aim of secondary English is twofold: 
(a) To give the students command of the art of expression in 

speech and writing. 
(6) To teach them to read thoroughly and with appreciation, 
to form in them a taste for good reading, and to teach 
them how to find books that are worth while. 
These two aims are fundamental; they must be kept in mind in 
planning the whole course and applied in the teaching of every 
term. 

These recommendations are here presented in some detail 
for the special purpose of suggesting that the analysis of aims 
in teaching English as stated by so important and represent- 
ative a body as a national committee is far from adequate. 
The immediate aims of the teaching of English as thus 
stated are far too narrow and leave out of account values 
and purposes if anything more fundamental than those sug- 
gested or implied. Thus in aim (a) emphasis is placed on 
" the art of expression " as the primary aim in teaching 
language. Language is far more important as an instrument 
by the use of vs^hich the individual's higher mental processes 
themselves are aided — as an instrument conditioning his 
very thinking — than as an instrument by which he may 
communicate his thought. Language is a tool conditioning 
thinking as well as a tool for communicating thought and its 



424 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

use for thinking is prior to its use for expression. Thus also 
in aim (6) as stated (except as may be involved in the am- 
biguous phrase '* thoroughly and with appreciation ") factors 
other than those contributing to culture and literary appre- 
ciation are almost if not quite lacking in emphasis. The 
point of these criticisms will appear more clearly in the fol- 
lowing sections of this chapter. 

183. The aims of language and of literature distinguished. 
It is in many ways unfortunate that the study of language 
and the study of literature have been grouped under the one 
head " English " in the program of the secondary school. 
However much the two fields of study may be correlated in 
teaching, however much they may depend upon and con- 
tribute to each other, the values, aims, and methods of the 
two studies are as widely separate as of any two studies in the 
program. The values and aims of language study in the 
secondary school center around the development of ability 
to use language as a tool and methods of teaching should be 
determined thereby. Commonly this is stated to mean the 
development of an ability to express one's own thought and 
to understand the thought of others as expressed in oral or 
written speech. Any such statement emphasizes the func- 
tion of language as a medium for communication and fails 
to recognize the fundamental fact that language is not 
merely a medium for the communication of thought, but 
a condition and tool for the thinking process itself. On the 
other hand, the values and aims of the study of literature 
center around the aesthetic elements of form, the moral- 
social elements of content, and the avocational elements of 
reading habits. True it is that the study of language is 
closely related to the study of literature, but it is also true 
that it is closely related to practically every other subject 
of study in the program. 

Failure to recognize the distinct and separate values and 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 425 

aims of language study and the study of literature consti- 
tutes one of the most serious diflSculties in the teaching of 
English in the secondary school. On the one hand it results 
in a tendency to minimize the study of language or to deal 
with it incidentally in connection with the study of litera- 
ture. On the other hand it results sometimes in making a 
piece of literature merely a basis of linguistic study, thus 
interfering with the attainment of the separate aims of the 
study of literature. 

II. The Aims and Values of the Study of Language 

184. The relation of language to thought. From what- 
ever point of approach we consider the problem of language 
values and language aims, we face at once the problem of 
the relation of language to thought. The relation of lan- 
guage to the commimication of thought is readily recog- 
nized. Therein is found the origin of articulate language. 
However, with the development of language use it became 
an instrument not only for the communication of thought 
but also for thinking itself. Created primarily for the pur- 
pose of acquainting others with the mental states of the 
individual language has become the means by which the 
individual's own mental life is fundamentally conditioned. 
In its broadest sense ** language " connotes more than verbal 
symbols alone and must be conceived as including every sign 
consciously employed to convey meaning. Notwithstanding 
this extended meaning of the term language, however, it is 
true that the dominant factor in language for adults is verbal 
imagery of some sort. Thus Dewey says: ^ 

The chief intellectual classifications that constitute the working cap^ 
ital of thought have been built up for us by our mother tongue. 

^ Dewey, J., Hoio We Think, p. 175. The best general statement of the 
relation of language to thought is found in that book, especially in chap. 
XIII. The extracts quoted are copyrighted by the publishers, D. C. Heath 
and Company, and are quoted with their permission. 



426 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

So important is this conception of the relation of lan- 
guage to the process of thinking and so important is the 
bearing of that relation on the study of the mother tongue 
we may foUow Dewey in further analysis and attempt 
to discover what functions language performs in assisting 
thought and its communication. 

(1) In relation to individual meanings verbal symbols 
perform three important functions: 

(a) They select and detach meanings from what are 
otherwise confused and confusing blurs. The appropriate 
naming of anything is closely related to the identiJB cation of 
that thing — so closely that there is a necessary parallelism 
between the development of vocabulary and the develop- 
ment of clearly defined percepts, concepts, feelings of mean- 
ing, and the like. The development of individual meanings 
cannot proceed very far without the development of the 
corresponding vocabulary. 

(6) Verbal symbols register and preserve meanings which 
would otherwise be limited to situations of direct contact: 

Since intellectual life depends on the possession of a store of 
meanings, the importance of language as a tool of preserving mean- 
ings cannot be overstated. To be sure, the method of storage is 
not wholly aseptic; words often corrupt and modify the meanings 
they are supposed to keep intact, but liability to infection is a price 
paid by every living thing for the privilege of living.^ 

(c) They apply meanings to new experiences: 

When a meaning is detached and fixed by a sign, it is possible to 
use that meaning in a new context and situation. This transfer and 
reapplication is the key to all judgment and inference [without 
which] no cumulative growth of intelligence would occur; experi- 
ence might form habits of physical adaptation but it would not 
teach anything, for we should not be able to use a prior experience 
consciously to anticipate and regulate further experience. To be 

1 Dewey, J., op. cit, p. 174. 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 427 

able to use the past to judge and infer the new and unknown implies 
that, although the past thing has gone, its meaning abides in such 
a way as to be applicable in determining the character of the new. 
Speech, forms are our great carriers: the easy-running vehicles by 
which meanings are transported from experiences that no longer 
concern us to those that are as yet dark and dubious.^ 

(2) Li relation to the organization of meanings verbal 
symbols perform equally important functions: 

Signs not only mark off specific or individual meanings, but they 
are also instruments of grouping meanings in relation to one an- 
other. Words are not only names or titles of single meanings; they 
also form sentences in which meanings are organized in relation to 
one another. . . . Propositions, sentences, bear the same relation 
to judgments that distinct words, built up by analyzing proposi- 
tions in their various types, bear to meanings or conceptions; and 
just as words imply a sentence, so a sentence implies a larger whole 
of consecutive discourse into which it fits.^ 

Meager though this statement of the functions of lan- 
guage is, it is sufficient to emphasize the view, frequently 
minimized, or totally ignored, that language is an instru- 
ment even more important for the individual's thinking than 
for the expression of his thought or for his understanding 
of the thoughts of others expressed through language. The 
point cannot be too strongly enforced that language is an 
instrument on which must depend the individual's actual 
thinking process to a very considerable extent. Any method 
of teaching English which minimizes that fact is fimdamen- 
tally at fault, and any course of study in English which sub- 
ordinates the relationing of language to thought is open to 
severe criticism. 

185. The aims and values of the study of language. The 

values of the study of one's mother tongue are twofold, 

being foimd in the use of language (1) as an instrument by 

which the individual's thinking is facilitated and condi- 

* Dewey, J., op. cit, pp. 174-75. 2 /^^ p ^75 



428 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tioned, and (2) as a medium of communication between 
individuals. Failure to recognize properly the first of these 
values and the tendency to devote attention almost exclu- 
sively to the second constitutes one of the most serious de- 
fects in the teaching of the mother tongue in the secondary 
school. *' Teaching pupils to express themselves in speech and 
writing" is psychologically dependent on and pedagogically 
subordinate to the process of making language an effective 
instrument for the individual's own intellectual enterprises. 
The early stages of language development are affected 
extensively by the necessity of providing an instrument suit- 
able for the ordinary affairs of everyday life and especially 
involve *' practical " and social uses. Gradually, however, 
must become more and more prominent the need of language 
as an intellectual instrument. Hence Dewey's statements : ^ 

This distinction of the practical and social from the intellectual 
use of language throws much light on the problem of the school in 
respect to speech. That problem is to direct pupils' oral and written 
speech^ used primarily for practical and social ends, so that gradually 
it shall become a conscious tool of conveying knowledge and assisting 
thought. How without checking the spontaneous natural motives — • 
motives to which language owes its vitality, force, vividness, and 
variety — are we to modify speech habits so as to render them 
accurate and flexible intellectual instruments? It is comparatively 
easy to encourage the original spontaneous flow and not to make 
language over into a servant of reflective thought; it is compara- 
tively easy to check and almost destroy (so far as the schoolroom 
is concerned) native aim and interest, and to set up artificial and 
formal modes of expression in some isolated and technical matters. 
The difficulty lies in making over habits that have to do with 
''ordinary affairs and conveniences" into habits concerned with 
"precise notions." 

Proper recognition of the importance of language use as 
related to the individual's own mental development should 
indicate the fallacy of those who state that the language 
* Dewey, J., op. cit., pp. 179-80. 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 429 

tool should or can be acquired by the end of the elementary- 
school period. The mechanics of language use, i.e., the 
ability to recognize groups of letters as familiar and to utter 
certain sounds when those symbols are seen in reading, the 
ability to put together certain letter symbols in response to 
specified auditory stimuli in spelling, the ability to make 
certain motor responses in writing, etc., — all those abilities 
may, perhaps, be well acquired by the close of the element- 
ary-school period. However, the far more fundamental 
abilities of relating verbal symbols and word uses to 
thought can never be acquired in anything like adequate 
form within that period. These abilities should, of course, 
begin at the earliest stages. They continue to be funda- 
mental, or even increase in importance, as education pro- 
ceeds. They are of predominant importance in the second- 
ary school. 

1 86. Language as an intellectual instrument. Livolved 
in the development of language both as an instrument of 
thought and for the transmission of thought are three 
elements or processes: (1) the development of the capital 
stock of words — the extensive development of vocabulary; 
this is inextricably related to (2) the development of in- 
creased precision and accuracy in the use of words as related 
to thought — the intensive development of vocabulary ; 
this iagain is inextricably related to (3) the development 
of habits of interrelating those words so as to facilitate 
consecutive thinking and consecutive discourse. Each of 
these elements deserves attention as involved in the study 
of language in the secondary school. 

(i) The extensive development of vocabulary : The proper 
development of vocabulary comes with extended experience 
with things and persons and the acquiring of words cor- 
rectly related thereto, or by experiencing the use of words 
in contexts. 



430 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

To grasp by either method a word in its meaning is to exercise 
intelligence, to perform an act of intelligent selection or analysis, 
and it is also to widen the fund of meanings or concepts readily 
available for further intellectual enterprises.^ 

The greater the number of words really associated with their 
appropriate percepts, concepts, feelings of meaning, and the 
like, which are available, the greater is the possibility of 
organizing and expressing thought: the more limited the 
stock of words available, the more limited must be the possi- 
biHty of thought and its expression. 

This is far from meaning, however, that extensive vocab- 
ulary alone is sufficient to guarantee any great amount of 
ability to think or to express thought. Extensive thinking 
without extensive vocabulary is impossible. Extensive vo- 
cabulary without extensive thinking is quite possible and 
very common. This arises on the one hand from the fact 
that verbal symbolic imagery tends constantly to outstrip 
the concrete imagery without ultimate reference to which 
the verbal symbol must always remain vague, general, and 
ill-defined. It arises on the other hand from the fact that 
the " passive vocabulary " tends constantly to outstrip the 
" active vocabulary." By " passive vocabulary *' is meant 
here that portion of one's vocabulary which consists of 
words recognized as more or less familiar and carrying some 
meaning of a vague and general character when experienced 
in a context or situation where other elements lend at least 
some temporary clue to the meaning, but which carry little 
or no meaning in isolation and cannot be employed by the 
individual in handling or expressing his own thought. It is 
a task of education to prevent this " passive vocabulary " 
from remaining passive and to make it a real instrument of 
thought and expression. On the other hand, there is every 
evidence that, as commonly conducted, education in the 
1 Dewey, J., op. eit., p. 180. 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 431 

school tends to foster the development of a " passive vocab- 
ulary " or even to develop an "expression vocabulary " which 
is far from being closely related to the thought elements for 
which it should stand. By the close of the elementary-school 
period, if not long before, there is manifest a tendency for 
pupils to associate words with words rather than with the 
concrete realities for which they stand or the elements of 
thought to which they should be related. There can be no 
doubt that it is one of the foremost aims of teaching in the 
school to prevent this mechanizing of language and to estab- 
lish proper language-thought relations. This means the 
extension (or correction) of vocabulary with real relation 
to the mental state supposedly represented. Any other 
extension of vocabulary is actually harmful rather than 
helpful. 

(2) The intensive development of vocabulary : Discovering 
and naming differing experiences is the basis of vocabulary 
development. Precision and accuracy in thinking and in 
the expression of thought is vitally conditioned by precision 
and accuracy in word uses. Increase in the precise and 
accurate use of words is no less important than the increase 
in the number of words more or less at one's command. 
In fact it is largely through increased differentiation in dis- 
covering and naming meanings that the extensive devel- 
opment of vocabulary becomes possible. 

The pupil enters the secondary school with a fairly ex- 
tensive vocabulary already acquired — acquired in the 
sense that he has already come into contact with a large 
number of words so that he may recognize them in a context 
or even employ them in certain word-word associations. His 
symbolic imagery has far outstripped his concrete imagery 
and his " passive vocabulary " is out of all proportion to his 
** active vocabulary." On the whole, his vocabulary is char- 
acterized by generaUty, vagueness, indefiniteness, or even 



432 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

error. However extensive his vocabulary may be, unless it 
is characterized by precision and accuracy and definiteness 
in use for thinking and expression, it must fail to be an 
efficient instrument for those processes, and must lead to 
looseness and error in thinking. 

Vagueness disguises the unconscious mixing together of differ- 
ent meanings and facilitates the substitution of one meaning for 
another, and covers up the failure to have any precise meaning at 
all. It is the aboriginal logical sin — the source from which flow 
most bad intellectual consequences.^ 

The first meanings of terms, siace they are due to superficial 
acquaintance with things, are general in the sense of being vague. 
. . . Such vagueness tends to persist and to become a barrier to the 
advance of thinking. Terms that are miscellaneous in scope are 
clumsy tools at best; in addition they are frequently treacherous, 
for their ambiguous reference causes us to confuse things that 
should be distinguished. ^ 

It has long been recognized that our feelings aroused 
through the senses (percepts, etc., when identified or inter- 
preted in connection with previous experiences) are at first 
vague, general, ill-defined, and that with a series of subse- 
quent experiences only do they become clear, specific, defin- 
ite, well-defined, clear-cut and precise percepts, etc., which 
have gradually emerged into clearness out of their original 
hazy and foggy condition. So terms (the symbolic images 
standing for those percepts, etc.) only gradually emerge 
into clearness and definiteness out of their original vague- 
ness and generality. The two processes — development of 
percepts, etc., and development of related vocabulary — 
are so closely related that neither process can proceed far 
without the other. The two proceed by climbing on each 
other's shoulders. As the relation between percepts and 
vocabulary develops, so develops the relation between con- 
cepts or general notions and their corresponding symbolic 
1 Dewey, J., op. ciL, p. 130. 2 jj^.^ p, igg. 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 433 

images — general words or names — and so develops the 
relation between feelings of abstraction, feelings of relation- 
ship, etc., and their corresponding terms. Finally, without 
such development the complex processes of selective think- 
ing are impossible. 

(3) The development of habits of consecutive thinking and 
consecutive discourse : Aside from what we may call the 
" intrinsic " meaning of a word — the relatively constant 
element of the fundamental root idea (that which makes 
it possible for us to recognize a term in different contexts) — 
there is always in actual use what we may call an *' extrin- 
sic " meaning — the varying element attached to the con- 
stant element or root idea as a modification of it when 
used contextually in relation to other terms (that which 
makes it possible for us to use the same word with some- 
what different shades of meaning determined by its sur- 
roundings). As a matter of fact, seldom, if ever, does the 
same term (the auditory, visual, motor, or other image) 
carry the same meaning in any two different contexts, and 
therefore the readiness with which varying meanings may 
be attached to the same term is the real desideratum both 
for thinking and for the expression of thought. The develop- 
ment of a rather extensive vocabulary in which the intrinsic 
meanings of terms are fairly adequate is a relatively simple 
task and one which may possibly be accomplished through 
elementary education. The development of an extensive 
vocabulary in which the extrinsic meanings of terms are 
adequately mastered is an extremely difficult task of great 
importance in secondary education. This can be accom- 
plished only by constant practice in the organization of 
consecutive thinking and consecutive discourse. 

187. The dominant purposes of language studies. If the 
assumptions outlined at some length in the preceding sec- 
tions are sound, it follows that the language studies of the 



434 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

secondary school should find their fundamental values and 
primary aims in the development of ability to employ lan- 
guage as an instrument of thinking and thereby as an instru- 
ment for the expression of thought. Such, therefore, should 
be the primary aim of the teaching of composition, and 
all elements which may be involved in the teaching of that 
subject should be considered of minor importance. Such 
also should be the aim in teaching those portions of grammar 
and rhetoric which may be justified in secondary education. 
With these criteria in mind there should be little danger that 
an all-embracing study of formal grammar would usurp the 
place of functional or applied grammar, or that an elabo- 
rately formal rhetoric would carry the study of that subject 
far beyond the legitimate limits of its applications in the 
secondary school. 

The study of language in the secondary school should in 
all cases be dominated by the conception that only exercise 
in the use of language can achieve the desired aims. Some 
knowledges about language are legitimate aids and many 
lend a stimulating interest to its study. No excuse can be 
found, however, for the practice at present common of 
emphasizing information about language and minimizing 
training in the use of language. 

1 88. Limitations of the study of the mother tongue. Un- 
questioned though the importance of the study of language 
is, it must be recognized that in the development of the 
ability to use one's mother tongue as a tool for thinking 
and for communicating thought the study of English suffers 
certain important limitations, most of which center around 
the difficulty of making over habits that have to do with 
** ordinary affairs and conveniences " into habits which are 
concerned with *' precise notions." Here several considera- 
tions may be adduced. 

(1) In the development of speech use there comes a time 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 435 

when the use of one's mother tongue for expression and in- 
terpretation (especially in reading) becomes so mechanical 
that the very facility with which one employs the language 
constitutes the greatest barrier to interfere with its further 
extension and its transformation from an instrument for 
ordinary use into an instrument for precise and accurate 
thinking and expression. The laws of habit tend inevitably 
to confirm the practice of grasping the general meaning of an 
expression seen in print or heard and of utilizing somewhat 
stereotyped expressions which but partially and approxi- 
mately convey the correct thought. Attention sinks to a 
low level and the conscious relationing of words to thought 
is minimized. Mental inertia leads to following the line of 
least resistance and results in the individual taking the eas- 
ier path aroiuid rather than the more effortful path through 
the thinking process. Comparison, contrast, and selection, 
necessary for the development of vocabulary and language 
habits if they are to be made more precise and accurate, are 
not forced on the individual when employing his own lan- 
guage where its facile use permits looseness and vagueness. 

(2) Closely related to the previous consideration, if not 
really a part of it, is the fact that our methods of education, 
with emphasis on the printed page, and the ordinary usages 
of everyday life tend to foster the development of an ex- 
tensive vocabulary, portions of which consist of words and 
expressions whose interpretation for the individual depends 
largely, if not wholly, in the context in which they occur 
and which have such vague and ill-defined meanings for him 
that they are practically useless as instruments for inde- 
pendent thinking and expression. Here belong the passive 
vocabulary previously mentioned and a large number of 
terms which have but symbol-symbol associations and 
almost entirely lack symbol-thought associations. 

(3) In the preceding section attention was called to the 



436 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

fact that the development of language-use as an instru- 
ment for thinking and expressing thought is dependent on 
rendering terms more precise and more accurate and on the 
ordering or relationing of terms in connected thought and 
connected discourse. The most important study for the 
accomplishment of that purpose is composition. Yet it is 
particularly in the teaching of composition that the greatest 
difficulties are encountered in utilizing the English language 
to transform the use of that language from an instrument for 
the ordinary affairs and conveniences of everyday life to an 
instrument for precise and accurate thinking. The only way 
in which terms (in their intrinsic and extrinsic meanings) 
may be rendered more precise and accurate is through the 
constantly refining process of comparison, contrast, and 
selection of terms whose connotation and denotation more 
or less overlap. Such a process involves selective thinking 
(reasoning) which can only arise when there is a felt diffi- 
culty and can take place only when an attempt is made to 
solve that difficulty. But in composition it is by no means 
easy to render conditions favorable to that process of selec- 
tive thinking which is necessary if effective comparison, 
contrast, and selection of terms are to be achieved. In the 
secondary school composition ordinarily means one of two 
things — either an attempt on the part of the pupil to 
" compose " an essay or theme out of whole cloth on a topic 
assigned or chosen, or to take a given piece of writing which 
he is to imitate or " reproduce " in expanded or constricted 
form. Imitative writing has nothing whatever to do with 
the present problem. Reproduction as far as exact thought 
is involved is a total impossibility in the same language. 
In any case it is extremely difficult if not impossible for the 
teacher to control or even to know the thought and vocabu- 
lary of the pupil clearly enough to enable him to direct the 
process of their interrelation. In writing a composition the 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 437 

pupil comes to a poipt where the right word to express his 
half -formed thought does not at once come to him. Does 
the pupil then enter on a process of reflective thinking in- 
volving comparison, contrast, and the selection of the right 
word? Barriers Tommy is a rare exception and in nine cases 
out of ten the pupil follows the line of least resistance, walks 
around the boulder in his way, revamps his thought to meet 
the narrow confines of his customary vocabulary, and the 
opportunity for improvement is forever lost. Able to know 
the pupil's thought only as it may be expressed the teacher 
is powerless to prevent such " side-stepping " practice on the 
part of the pupil, can judge only the composition as written 
(or spoken), and hence can to a limited degree only control 
the relating of terms and language to the thought process 
on the part of the pupil. ^ 

(4) It scarcely needs to be mentioned here that the study 
of language in the school is seriously handicapped by the 
fact that the use of language outside the school is so loose 
that it is extremely difficult through the English class to 
overcome the laxity of language-thought relating in the 
ordinary use of the language outside the school. The study 
of one's own language does not compel conscious attention 
to the language-thought relation without which conditions 
are unfavorable for the transformation of language as a tool 
for ordinary social use into a tool for precise and accurate 
thinking. 

(5) Even within the school the teaching of language 
suffers serious limitations. Habit formation demands as 
one of its essential conditions that associations suffer few 
exceptions. Whatever habits may be successfully fostered 
in the EngHsh class they are commonly counteracted by 
interfering conditions in other classes. Unless the work in 

^ Space limits attention here to written composition only. Oral com- 
position suffers the same limitations. 



438 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

English is closely correlated with the work of other classes, 
unless the relation of language and thought is carefully 
attended to in the study of other subjects, the constructive 
work of the English class will be in great part offset by the 
destructive work in other classes. The teaching of language 
usage is primarily the work of the English teacher. It is also 
an important part of the work of every other teacher. 

Of the limitations for teaching language through the 
medium of the English class the first three mentioned are 
of great importance in connection with the study of foreign 
languages. The position will be taken in Chapter XIII 
that the most general and fundamental values of the study 
of foreign languages in the American secondary school are 
found in connection with the language-thought relation and 
serve to aid the study of English at the points where the 
limitations of the latter are greatest. 

III. The Aims and Values of the Study of 
Literature 

189. Literature and the social-civic aim of education. 
Whenever we deal with the social-civic aim of secondary 
education we deal with an aim which is general and uni- 
versal. Hence, whatever study contributes directly or 
indirectly to the attainment of the social-civic aim must 
be conceived as offering general and universal values. 
Here the study of literature is of value in two related ways: 
(a) it affords contact with human experiences and human 
conduct in complete variety; (6) by bringing pupils into 
contact with the experiences, traditions, conventions, and 
customs of society it possesses great integrating values. 

In a very important sense literature is to be conceived as 
a social-science study in the secondary school, when prop- 
erly conducted occupying a position by no means inferior 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 439 

to that of history, economics, and civics. History deals 
primarily with group experiences and economics or sociology 
with abstract principles. Civics and literature both reach the 
field of individual conduct, but start from opposite extremes, 
literature dealing predominantly with individual conduct 
and having little to do with the formal duties of citizenship. 
With the thousand and one phases of everyday behavior 
history, sociology, and economics have little or nothing to 
do. Even civics in its broadest sense has relatively little to 
do with those phases of life's activities. On the other hand 
that is exactly the field where literature, in its broadest and 
best sense, reigns supreme. The experiences which go to 
determine the individual's action and conduct in the ordi- 
nary affairs of life may be provided directly or vicariously. 
One's environment must needs limit the direct experiences: 
the vicarious experiences may be provided through reading 
and are limited only by the opportunities and acquired hab- 
its of reading. The study of literature, properly conducted, 
may and should extend the range of one's experiences far 
beyond the limits of one's immediate environment. 

Turning our attention in a somewhat different direction 
we may note that the study of literature may be made a 
powerful factor for social integration. The dominant ideals 
of any society, its traditions, its thought, its customs, its life 
are embodied in its literature. Acquaintance with national 
or racial literature has something more than merely conven- 
tional value. It has value as instilling in the individual all 
that has gone to make a society what it is and of creating in 
him unconsciously its own ideals, thought, and aspirations. 
The spiritual inheritance of the race is best conveyed to the 
pupil through the study of its literature. 

190. Literature and the economic-vocational aim. Liter- 
ature, as any other subject of study in the secondary-school 
program, may become a vocational subject for certain indi- 



440 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAHY EDUCATION 

viduals. It is to be noted, however, that as a vocational 
study in the secondary school hterature can have but hm- 
ited values and, indeed, it may well be that attention to the 
vocational values of literature is entirely out of place there. 
Certainly this must be so save in very few cases. 

If the limited vocational values of the study of literature 
in the secondary school were fully recognized in high-school 
teaching, further consideration of literature in connection 
with the economic-vocational aim would be superfluous. 
Attention was called above to the fallacy of failing to dis- 
tinguish between values of production, accomplishment, or 
technical knowledge and values of consumption, utilization, 
or appreciation. This fallacy is not without exemplification 
in the teaching of English literature which is preeminently 
a subject whose dominant values are those of utilization 
and appreciation. No justification can be found for the 
extensive attention paid in many schools to the formal side 
of literature and to literary technique. 

191. Literature and the individualistic-avocational aim. 
Probably no other study in the secondary-school program 
can compete with literature as a study contributing to 
the individualistic-avocational aim of secondary education. 
Two thousand years ago Cicero praised literature as a source 
of enjoyment suited to all times, all ages, and all places as 
contrasted with other sources of enjoyment of more limited 
scope. To-day his praise may be extended to apply to all 
individuals as well. As a universal source of enjoyment for 
the utilization of leisure literature affords universal values 
which cannot be neglected. The increasing amount of 
leisure afforded the individual and the increasing facilities 
for *' reading " make the study of literature of constantly 
increasing importance in the secondary school. People will 
read : what practically all people will do they must be trained 
how best to do. Assuming that people will read, the question 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 441 

becomes important as to what they will read and how they 
will read. 

In the field of literature the social-civic and the individ- 
ualistic-avocational aims of secondary education meet. In 
considering the latter aim the point was made that from a 
social viewpoint the aim of the secondary school to afford 
preparation for the enjoyment of life is negative in the sense 
that it purposes not so much to build up civilization as to 
prevent its impairment. In the case of teaching literature 
for its individualistic-avocational values the aim must be to 
develop such standards of taste and appreciation as may 
afford enjoyment to the individual without allowing those 
values to interfere with the social-civic values of the study. 
The tremendous influence of modern literature on the -indi- 
vidual has created a problem which cannot safely be neg- 
lected by the secondary school. Some, perhaps much, of 
that literature is good and valuable. Much also is bad and 
harmful. Which of the two sorts will prove strong influences 
in the lives of secondary -school pupils may be determined 
in part by the study of literature in the school. To expect 
such study wholly to determine this is to expect the impossi- 
ble. To attempt to establish too high a standard (especially 
from the artistic and aesthetic viewpoints) is in many cases 
to defeat the very purpose aimed at. 

Have we not here the criteria of materials to be intro- 
duced in the secondary school for the study of literatures^ 
Two important values are to be attained: (a) the social- 
civic values (including moral values), and (b) the individu- 
alistic-avocational values (including sesthetic values). Such 
pieces of literature as may be made the object of study in 
the secondary-school course must conform to one or both 
of those values. Pieces of literature introduced primarily 
for their social-civic values must secondarily possess indi- 
vidualistic-avocational values or be balanced by others 



442 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

designed to produce such values. Pieces of literature intro- 
duced primarily for their individualistic-avocational values 
must secondarily possess social-civic values or at least be 
such as do not tend to counteract social-civic influences. 
Any course in literature which subordinates either of the 
two principal aims of the study is faulty. The maximum of 
values will accrue when a proper balance is maintained be- 
tween the two values. 

One point further requires attention before this topic is 
left. Since the main values of the study of literature as con- 
tributing to the social-civic aim are to be found in the influ- 
ence of its content and since the main values of its study as 
contributing to the individualistic-avocational aim of sec- 
ondary education are to be found in the development of a 
sense of enjoyment in reading and taste in the choice of such 
reading, it would appear to follow that in all cases highly 
formal study and attention to the technique of literature 
should be subordinated to those more important values. 
The study of literary technique, except within such limits 
as obviously affect the general appreciation of literature, has 
no place in the study of literature in the secondary school. 
The aesthetics of style, when carried beyond the elements 
and made an important part of the work in literature, bene- 
fit a few exceptional pupils, but seriously encroach on much 
more important phases of the work for the vast majority of 
pupils. It must be constantly in the mind of the teacher of 
literature that the values of utilization and appreciation are 
dominant in that subject and that high-school pupils are to 
be trained to utilize and appreciate literature, not to pro- 
duce it, to become intelligent consumers of literature, not 
producers nor yet even literary critics. The former function 
is general and universal : the latter is extremely limited and 
restricted. 

192, Criticism of English study as now organized. To 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 443 

criticize the general economy of the study of English in the 
American secondary school is to criticize as many economies 
as there are schools and is therefore hopeless except in the 
most general terms. Nevertheless, a number of important 
points deserve some attention. 

(1) There is a grave tendency in many quarters to mini- 
mize the study of the language and to give disproportionate 
attention to the study of literature. The adequate teaching 
of language is an extremely difficult task. The teaching of 
literature sometimes appears easy. The one task is relatively 
irksome both to pupil and to teacher: the other is relatively 
pleasant. The one apparently exhibits rather indefinite and 
intangible results not readily measured or observed: the 
other exhibits rather definite and tangible results, somewhat 
readily measured and observed. The line of least resistance 
favors the greater attention to literature and in the average 
school the study of language per se suffers in consequence. 
For this there is no justification. 

(2) A second tendency commonly manifested is that of 
emphasizing certain formal phases of the use of language 
for expression, a failure adequately to recognize the impor- 
tance of the study of language as an instrument for thinking 
itself, and hence a failure to emphasize values which are 
fundamental even to the values of language for expression. 

(3) The proportionate attention to either of the two im- 
portant aims of the study of literature (social-civic and indi- 
vidualistic-avocational) tends toward an overemphasis on 
the individualistic-avocational side and toward a relative 
neglect of the social-civic side. An overemphasis in either 
direction is undesirable. 

(4) Apparently the tendency is constant to overempha- 
size the formal side of literature at the risk of failing to 
arouse in the majority of pupils that abiding liking for 
*' reading " which is the special purpose of the individualistic- 



444 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

avocational aim of the study of literature in the secondary 
school. 

(5) However much teachers in the secondary school may 
recognize the validity of the abstract proposition that re- 
sponsibility for language work is theirs as well as the English 
teacher's, their practice is far from recognizing the respon- 
sibility. Until that proposition is as thoroughly recognized 
in practice as it is in theory the adequate teaching of the 
English language cannot be attained. 

(6) In view of the general and universal values of the study 
of English a serious question arises when it is proposed that 
in certain courses (especially in vocational courses and vo- 
cational schools) attempts are made to substitute applied 
forms of English in special fields, e.g., *' business English," 
for more general courses. If the moral-social, the integrat- 
ing, and the avocational values of the study of literature are 
sound, if the fundamental values of the study of language as 
an instrument for thinking and for the expression of thought 
are valid, there can be no justification for their elimination 
in favor of " applied forms " of English. Wherever such 
forms as *' business English," etc., are justified, they must 
be justified primarily on the basis of vocational studies and 
not as taking the place of studies which have an entirely 
different aim — social-civic or individualistic-a vocational. 

(7) Probably the greatest loss of efficiency in the study of 
English in the American secondary school results from the 
failure on the part of school officers, teachers, and pupils to 
distinguish carefully between 'the aims and values of the 
various phases of the work included under the ambiguous 
term " English." In the preceding analysis of aims and 
values it has been pointed out that a number of quite differ- 
ent purposes are involved in the different phases of work in 
the study of *' English." That numerous interrelations are 
legitimate between these different phases is clear and it is 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH 445 

true that correlation and cooperation are eminently desir- 
able. It is nevertheless true that failure to distinguish be- 
tween the primary aims and values of the study of language 
per sCy the study of literature for social-civic ends, and the 
study of literature for individualistic ends, etc., leads to 
confusion in the study of " English " in the average second- 
ary school. The gravest error here is that frequently noted 
in the burdening of the study of literature with detailed 
language analysis and with elaborately formal study of the 
technique of literary composition. In the average "English '* 
class the teacher either fails to analyze the special values to 
be emphasized in the particular phase of work involved or 
attempts to meet too many aims and to develop too many 
values at the same time. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. What are the arguments for and against the separation of language and 
literature studies in secondary-school English? (Cf. Snedden, D., 
Problems of Secondary Education, pp. 171 ff.) 

2. What differences in teaching would follow from the organization of 
language coiu-ses in English designed to emphasize the use of language 
as an instrument for the pupils' thinking rather than to emphasize his 
ability in expression ? 

3. Devise methods of testing a pupil's "passive" and "active" vocabu- 
laries. 

4. Make a study of the relative proportions of time now devoted to lan- 
guage and literature studies in a number of different high schools. 

5. What means might be devised to emphasize the relationing of language 
use to thought in English composition? 

6. What are the arguments for and against the study of "formal gram- 



mar 



•? 



7. What are the arguments for and against the study of logic in the second- 
ary school? 

8. Make a list of books for high-school reading which would emphasize 
both social and avocational values. 

9. Analyze the books now commonly read in the public high schools in 
terms of the values suggested in this chapter. 

10. Devise methods of determining the character of pupils' vocabularies 
on entrance to the secondary school. 



446 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

11. Consider the various scales for measuring English composition with 
reference to the degree in which they measure the language-thought 
relations emphasized in this chapter. 

12. Consider the various "reading tests" with reference to language- 
thought relations. 

13. Apply various "opposites tests," "part-whole tests," "genus-species 
tests," etc., to secondary-school pupils. (Cf. Whipple, G. M., Manual 
of Mental and Physical Tests.) 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bates, A., Talks on the Teaching of Literature. 

Bolenius, E., Teaching Literature in the Grammar Grades and High School. 

Brown, R. W., How the French Boy Learns to Write. 

Campagnac, E. T., The Teaching of Composition. 

Carpenter, G. R., Baker, F. T., and Scott, F. N., The Teaching of English 
in Elementary and Secondary School, especially pp. 3-66, 188-292. 

Chubb, P., The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary 
School, especially pp. 235-50, 371-95. 

Dewey, J., How We Think, especially chap. xin. 

Fairchild, A. H. R., Teaching Poetry in the High School. 

Farrington, F. E., French Secondary Schools, pp. 187-212 ("The Teaching 
of French in French Secondary Schools"). 

Hall, G. S., Educational Problems, vol. ii, pp. 397-492. 

Hinsdale, B. A., Teaching the Language Arts. 

Huey, E. B., The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, chaps. V-viii, xrx. 

Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, pp. 133-210. 

Klapper, P., The Teaching of English. 

National Education Association, Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary 
School Studies, pp. 86-95 (Bureau of Education edition). 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education, and the National Council of Teachers of English, 
Report by the National Joint Committee, Reorganization of English in 
Secondary Schools, Bureau of Education Bulletin (1917) no. 2. 

Neal, R. W., Thought-Building in Composition. 

O'Shea, M. V., Linguistic Development and Education, especially pp. 124-97. 

Russell, J. E., German Higher Schools, pp. 227-44 ("The Teaching of Ger- 
man in German Higher Schools "). 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. XV. 

Thomas, C. S., The Teaching of English in the Secondary School, chap. i. 

Extended bibliographies: Thomas, C. S., as above, pp. 346-50; Bureau of 
Education Bulletin (1917) no. 2, pp. 156-77. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN THE 
PROGRAM OF STUDIES 

193. Historical development in America. Attention has 
previously been called to the fact that during the colonial 
period the studies of the secondary school were exclusively 
linguistic and literary and were confined to Latin and Greek. 
The study of the ancient languages and literature, therefore, 
has had an unbroken history since the beginning of second- 
ary education in America, being perpetuated through the 
academy and the public high school. From about 1900 the 
study of Greek has tended to disappear from the program 
of the public secondary school, its demise being assisted by 
the removal of the protecting influence of college admission 
requirement. In this connection it may be well to note that 
common opinion has always ascribed to the study of Greek 
in the public secondary school of the nineteenth century a 
prominence which it never really attained. As a matter of 
historical fact it is quite improbable that the proportion of 
pupils studying Greek in the public high schools of this 
country ever was as high as five per cent of the total enroll- 
ment.^ The assumed popularity of Greek in the public high 
schools of America never was a reality. 

The modern foreign languages found their way into the 
program of the modern secondary school via the academy 
which contributed the study of French and German to the 
early high school. Thus French was introduced into the 
Girls' High School of Boston as an optional subject in 1826 

^ Inglis, A. J., The Rise of the High School in Massachtisetts, pp. 89-94, 
108-10. 



448 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and into the program of the English Classical (High) School 
of Boston in 1836.^ German was introduced at least as early 
as 1838-39 in the Central High School of Philadelphia. Dur- 
ing the earlier period the study of French and German was 
upheld for its cultural values primarily. Latin sentiment 
and race influences extensively affected the study of the 
modern foreign languages, especially German. Finally, 
within the past decade or so, the commercial values of such 
study have received increased emphasis. 

The development of the study of foreign languages in the 
public secondary schools from 1890 to 1915 is indicated in 
Table CXIX. The data presented in the following table will 
further illustrate that development. 

Table CXX. Numbers of Pupils engaged in Foreign 
Language Studies * 



Year 



1890 
1895 
1900 
1905 
1910 
1915 

1890 
1895 
1900 
1905 
1910 
1915 






o 2 
o 2 



Latin 


German 


French 


Spanish 


70,411 


21,338 


11,858 




153,950 


39,901 


22,813 




262,767 


74,408 


40,395 




341,248 


137,661 


62.120 




362,548 


175,083 


73,161 


4,920 


434,925 


284,294 


102,516 


31,743 


100,144 


34,208 


28,032 


... 


205,006 


58,921 


45,746 




314,856 


94,873 


65,684 




391,067 


160,066 


89,777 




405,502 


192,933 


95,671 


5,283 


503,985 


312,358 


136,131 


35,148 



Greek 



6,202 

10,859 

14,813 

10,002 

5,511 

3,351 

12,869 
22,159 
24,869 
17,158 
10,739 
10,671 



* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. ii, pp. 487-89. The 
figures are actually higher since not all schools reported the necessary data. 

Between 1890 and 1900 the public secondary-school en- 
rollment increased 140 per cent, the number of pupils study- 

1 First appearance in the Regulations for 1836; claimed for 1832. 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 449 

ing Latin increased 273 per cent, the number of pupils 
studying German increased 249 per cent, the number of 
pupils studying French increased 241 per cent, and the 
number of pupils studying Greek increased 139 per cent. 
Between 1900 and 1910 the total enrollment increased 78 
per cent, the number of pupils studying Latin increased 38 
per cent, the number of pupils studying German increased 
135 per cent, the number of pupils studying French in- 
creased 81 per cent, and the number of pupils studying 
Greek decreased 63 per cent. Between 1910 and 1915 the 
total enrollment of the public secondary school increased 
45 per cent, the number of pupils studying Latin in- 
creased 20 per cent, the nmnber of pupils studj^ing Ger- 
man increased 62 per icent, the number of pupils studying 
French increased 40 per cent, the number of pupils study- 
ing Greek decreased 39 per cent, and the number of pupils 
studying Spanish showed a noticeable increase. 

194. Present status. Few, if any, high schools in the 
United States (other than certain special schools) fail to 
offer foreign languages in their programs of study. Com- 
monly at least two foreign languages are offered. In many 
high schools some foreign language study is required of the 
majority of pupils at some stage in the secondary school 
course. 

Such figures as those presented in Table CXX emphasize 
the necessity of analyzing the values claimed to accrue from 
the study of foreign language, which at the present time 
occupies the attention of considerably more than one half 
of the entire number of pupils in the secondary schools 
and (at a rough estimate) consumes about one seventh to 
one fifth or more of all the time spent by all students 
in the secondary school. Here some comparisons with 
the higher-school programs of Germany and France are 
instructive. 



450 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table CXXI. Foeeign Languages in the Prussian 
Higher Schools for Boys* 





Latin 


Greek 


French 


English 


Total 


Gymnasium: 

Number of years studied. . . 
Total number of "periods" . 
Per cent of total time 


9 
68 
26.3 


6 
36 
13.9 


7 
20 

7.7 


Elective 


47.9 


Realgymnasium : 

Number of years studied. . . . 
Total number of "periods". 
Per cent of total time 


9 

49 
18.7 


... 


7 
29 
11.0 


6 
18 
6.9 


96 
36.6 


Oberrealschule: 

Number of years studied . . . 
Total number of "periods". 
Per cent of total time 


. . . 


... 


9 

47 
18.0 


6 
25 
9.5 


72 
27.5 



* Compiled from Lehrpldne'und Lehraufgahen fur die hoheren Schulen in Preussen (1901), 
pp. 4-6, 



From these figures it appears that in the Prussian Gymna- 
sium nearly one' half of the entire course is devoted to the 
study of foreign languages, more than two fifths of the entire 
time being devoted to the study of the ancient languages. 
In the Realgymnasium nearly three eighths of the course is 
devoted to the study of foreign languages, about equally 
divided between Latin and the modern languages. In the 
Oberrealschule more than one quarter of the entire course is 
devoted to the modern foreign languages — French and 
English. It will be noted, of course, that the modern foreign 
languages are of much greater social and commercial value 
in Germany than in America. 

In the French secondary school also the study of foreign 
languages plays an important role. 

From the figures in Table CXXII it appears that from 
one fifth to one half of the course in the French lyc6e or 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 451 



Table CXXII. Foreign Languages in the French 
Secondary School for Boys * 





Latin 


Greek 


Modern 
Languages 


Total 


Section A: 
Length of course in years . . 

Number of "periods" 

Per cent of total time 


6-7 

33 

23.6 


4-5 

16 

11.5 


6-7 

20 

14.3 


"69 
49.4 


Section B: 
Length of course in years . . 

Number of "periods" 

Per cent of total time 


6-7 

33 

23.3 


... 


6-7 

32 
22.6 


"65 
45.9 


Section C: 
Length of course in years . . 

Number of "periods" 

Per cent of total time 


6-7 

33 

21.6 


... 


6-7 

22 
14.4 


55 

55 

36.0 


Section D: 

Length of course in years . . 

Number of "periods" 

Per cent of total time 


... 


... 


6-7 

33 

22.7 


"33 

22.7 



* Plan d'Etudes el Programmes de V Enseignement Secondaire des Gargons, p. 39-177 (11th 
edition). 

college is devoted to the study of foreign languages, more 
than one fifth of the entire time being devoted to the 
study of Latin except in Section D. Here again compari- 
sons with the situation in America are difficult because of 
the social and commercial importance of the modern for- 
eign languages in France and because of the close relation 
between the Latin and French languages. 

195. A preliminary analysis of aims and values. Values 
claimed for the study of foreign languages in the American 
secondary school may be readily classified under two broad 
heads: (1) those which arise from the relatively direct and 
specific use of the foreign language as a medium of communi- 
cation for the expression of the user's thoughts or for the 



452 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

interpretation of the thoughts of others; (2) those which 
arise indirectly from the study of the foreign language either 
by the effect of that study on the language-thought relation 
or through the improvement of certain general mental traits. 
Either of these grouped values may be further subdivided. 
Thus under the head of direct and specific values should be 
considered: (a) the use of the foreign language for purposes 
of social intercourse, including its use in travel, etc. ; (b) its 
use for commercial purposes; (c) its instrumental use for 
reading purposes — its propaedeutic values; {d) its social- 
cultural use as a means for extending one's understanding 
and appreciation of the literature, history, life, customs, etc., 
of other peoples. Under the head of indirect and general 
values should be considered: (a) the use of the study of a 
foreign language for the development of ability to associate 
language and thought in one's native tongue; (b) the use of 
the study of a foreign language to development of certain 
general mental traits. For purposes of further analysis in 
the following sections all these values may be classified as 
follows : 

(1) Direct and specific values: 
(a) Social values. 

(6) Vocational values. 

(c) Instrumental-propaedeutic values. 

(d) Social-cultural values. 

(2) Indirect and general values: 

(a) General linguistic values. 

(b) General transfer values. 

In spite of the recognized interrelation of these values it 
is profitable to consider them separately in the following 
sections. 

196. Values for social intercourse. In attempting to 
estimate the direct and specific values of the study of for- 
eign languages for purposes of social intercourse, e.g., in 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 453 

travel or in this country, at least three facts are obvious: 

(1) that such values apply to the modern languages only; 

(2) that such direct and specific values are undoubted and 
unquestioned for some individuals; (3) that such values are 
limited and contingent, i.e., they may be very great for a 
limited number of individuals and little or lacking for others. 
As a matter of fact they are important for a very restricted 
number of individuals, helpful but to an insignificant de- 
gree for a few others, and totally lacking for the great ma- 
jority of secondary-school pupils. Certainly less than five 
per cent of the pupils who study German in the secondary 
schools of this country will ever have the slightest need of 
utilizing that language for purposes of social intercourse and 
certainly less than one per cent of all pupils attending the 
secondary school will find such values in that study. The 
case is much the same for the study of French for purposes 
of social intercourse. The contingency that such a small 
proportion of secondary school pupils may have this oppor- 
tunity (not need) for the use of a foreign language for such 
purposes cannot justify any important position for the study 
of a foreign language in the public secondary school. The 
fact that in this country are large numbers of people whose 
native tongue is German, French, or any other tongue is an 
argument not for attaching importance to these languages 
for purposes of social intercourse but rather against any 
such procedure. The practice obtaining in certain communi- 
ties, where racial influence is strong, of giving undue prom- 
inence to the study of a foreign language for purposes of 
social intercourse is distinctly un-American and contra- 
social. 

197. Values for commercial purposes. In the case of the 
values of the study of foreign languages for commercial 
purposes, as in the case of values for purposes of social inter- 
course, the same three facts are obvious: (1) that such 



454 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

values apply to the modern languages only; (2) that such 
direct and specific values are undoubted and unquestioned 
for some individuals; (3) that such values are limited and 
contingent. Within the past decade or so the attention of 
the secondary school has been directed more toward the 
importance of the study of foreign languages for vocational 
purposes. This has resulted from two facts, the recognition 
in the secondary schools of the vocational aim in secondary 
education and the recognition of the relative inefficiency of 
our machinery for international commerce. The values of 
the study of certain foreign languages for commercial use 
has been readily accepted as valid by the school public and 
by school authorities, who have, however, frequently failed 
to recognize that commonly such values are highly limited 
and highly contingent. They have failed commonly to 
appreciate the fact that bilingual men and women in this 
country are in plentiful supply in the great majority of in- 
stances and that the smattering of German, French, or 
Spanish gained in the secondary school does not enable the 
individual so equipped to compete on anything like equal 
terms with the German-American, the French-American, 
or the Spanish-American. Whether or not this be accepted 
as a fact it must be recognized that the annual increase in 
the number of those added to the commercial population 
who utilize German, French, or Spanish is relatively small 
— small out of all proportion to the number of those who 
leave our secondary schools equipped with some knowledge 
of one or more of those languages. That as high as five per 
cent of the pupils in the public secondary schools should 
study a foreign language for commercial or vocational 
purposes would probably be a gross over-estimate. 

198. Values for instrumental purposes. While ordinarily 
stated as a quite subordinate aim of the study of foreign 
languages in the secondary school, the instrumental-propse- 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 455 

deutic aim of the study may deserve passing notice if for 
no other purpose than to call attention to the fact that it 
is limited and highly contingent. The claims for this value 
are commonly stated somewhat in this form: in the higher 
vocations one should be able to keep abreast with the 
thought and activities of those in the same vocation in 
other countries; to do this he must be able to read techni- 
cal journals, etc., in the tongue in which they are originally 
written; hence he should be able to read French, German, 
etc. In such an argument both the necessity of such knowl- 
edge by the specialist is over-estimated and the contingency 
that many individuals will be concerned is over-estimated. 
In these days few writings of importance fail to receive no- 
tice by translation or in summary in the technical journals 
written in English. When such means are not adequate 
the expenditure of a little money for translation commonly 
saves much effort and produces equally valuable results. It 
is to be noted, too, that the contingency is practically limited 
to secondary-school pupils who are destined for a college 
course which may well include the study of a foreign lan- 
guage for instrumental purposes. 

199. Values for social-cultural purposes. Beyond doubt 
one of the desirable results of the study of the language and 
literature of a foreign people may be an increased know^ledge 
of the life, customs, institutions, thought, etc., of that peo- 
ple and thereby a means for the interpretation of one's own 
country, its life, thought, institutions, etc. The events of 
the present time illustrate clearly how important such inter- 
national understanding may be and how important it may 
be to have citizens of one country understand and appreciate 
those of another. In this connection, however, two import- 
ant problems arise: (1) How far can the ordinary course in 
a foreign language offered in the secondary school provide 
for this consummation? and (2) How far could the desirable 



456 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

content elements of the study of foreign literature be pro- 
vided without involving the study of the foreign language? 
(1) Whatever be the possibility of deriving social-cultural 
values from the study of a foreign language in the secondary 
school we may be sure that there is a constant tendency on 
the part of its proponents who have enjoyed extended con- 
tact with its literature to overestimate the values commonly 
derived from the limited study of the secondary school pupil 
and to interpret those values in terms of their own extended 
acquaintance with the language, literature, and life of the 
people whose language is studied. It is at least questionable 
whether the secondary school pupil through a course of study 
which may have involved from two or three hundred hours 
to a thousand hours of contact with the field (a large pro- 
portion of which has been devoted to the language side pure 
and simple) ever approaches the point where the content 
values of the study assume importance for social-cultural 
values. Standards set by the Committee of Twelve ap- 
pointed by the Modern Language Association are as follows: 

Table CXXIH 

French German 

Pages read in first two years 350 to 375 225 to 250 

Pages read in third year of course 400 600 400 400 

Pages read in fourth year of course 600 1000 500 500 

Total for four years of study 1350 to 1975 1125 to 1150 

The amount of Latin literature ordinarily read in the 
secondary school is about 500 to 550 pages of Csesar, Cicero, 
and Vergil. How much content value (literature, history, 
etc.) can be gained from such a small amount of study can- 
not be estimated but it may well be doubted that such value 
is very great, especially when it is realized that greater atten- 
tion is devoted to language interpretation than to the con- 
tent. If, however, the ability to use the foreign language 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN. LANGUAGES 457 

renders it possible, as it does, for the individual to continue 
and extend his acquaintance with the literature, life, etc., 
of the foreign people through further reading of that liter- 
ature after completing the secondary-school course, much 
greater social-cultural values must be assigned to the study 
of the foreign languages. Unfortunately, save in the case 
of certain pupils who continue their education in the college, 
experience has shown all too clearly that the competition 
of literature in the mother tongue is too strong and that 
little is to be expected in the continued use of the foreign 
language after the school course is ended. 

(2) The claim, readily granted, that certain social-cul- 
tural values may be derived from the study of foreign lan- 
guages has raised a second issue in the question whether or 
not such values cannot be more easily acquired in great part 
at a less expenditure of time and energy, either through the 
study of history (for a knowledge of the life, customs, etc., 
of the foreign people) or through the study of translations 
(for acquaintance with the literature, thought, customs, etc., 
of that people) . Here it is claimed on the one hand that by 
such means (somewhat indirect) much of the charm of liter- 
ature and much of the characteristic spirit of a people is lost. 
This is doubtless true. On the other hand it is argued that 
it is just that finer element of "charm," just that subtler ele- 
ment of ** spirit" that the secondary-school pupil does not 
and cannot get, save in very few instances, and that such ele- 
ments as may be extractible from the study of the foreign 
language in the original and not derivable in other indirect 
ways for the secondary-school pupil are small out of all 
proportion to the amount of time and energy expended. In 
this connection it may be observed that the pieces of foreign 
literature commonly read in the secondary school are just 
those for which there already exist excellent translations or 
those which might be adequately translated with ease. 



458 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

200. Summary and correlation of direct values. In the 
preceding sections each of the direct and specific values 
claimed for the study of foreign languages has been consid- 
ered in isolation and it has been pointed out that each of 
those values is limited and contingent. This is, of course, 
markedly the case with respect to the study of the ancient 
languages where direct values are highly restricted. Thus 
the values of the study of Latin and Greek for purposes 
of social intercourse and for commercial purposes are nil. 
Their vocational and instrumental values are limited to a few 
professions such as the ministry, law, medicine, literature, 
teaching, etc. Less limited and less contingent are the social- 
cultural values of the study of the classical languages, but 
there the study is conditioned by the considerations adduced 
in the preceding section. In the case of the modern lan- 
guages the direct and specific values of their study are much 
greater, but still decidedly limited and contingent. 

While no single direct value of the study of foreign lan- 
guages can justify any great amount of attention to those 
subjects in the program of studies and while their direct val- 
ues are limited and contingent to a degree not ordinarily ap- 
preciated, the coordination and correlation of all those direct 
and specific values establishes an aggregate value which is 
important for the secondary-school program. The number 
of pupils who may properly study a modern foreign language 
for purposes of social intercourse, plus the number who may 
study it for vocational purposes, plus the number of those 
who may study it for instrumental-propaedeutic purposes, 
plus the number of those who may study it for social-cultu- 
ral values, gives an aggregate number of pupils who may 
legitimately study a foreign language in the public secondary 
school large enough to warrant attention to its study therein. 
It is obvious, however, that such direct and specific values 
cannot justify the study of Latin by 503j.985 pupils, the 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 459 

study of German by 312,359 pupils, and the study of 
French by 136,131 pupils at any one time in the secondary 
schools of this country, and the prescription or semi-pre- 
scription of the study of some foreign-language study by 
the majority of pupils in such schools. If any such justifica- 
tion can be found for the prominent position which foreign- 
language study now occupies in the schools it must rest in 
part at least on different grounds than the direct and specific 
values. It therefore remains to consider the possible indirect 
and general values which have been claimed for the study 
of foreign languages. This is, of course, particularly true 
of the study of the ancient languages. 

201. Foreign-language study and ** general discipline." 
In common with most subjects in the secondary-school 
program the foreign languages have always been justified 
by their proponents in part on the basis of their values 
for training such general mental functions as *' concentra- 
tion," " accurate observation," ''intelligent discrimination," 
" memory," *' reasoning," etc. Such claims have been and 
are made for each of the foreign languages, but have been 
emphasized particularly in the case of the ancient languages 
for which relatively little direct and specific value can be 
established. An excellent example of this argument may be 
found in Lodge's eulogy of the study of the classical lan- 
guages:^ 

*'The first and dominant object of all education is to teach the 
child, the boy or girl, to use his or her mind; that is, in other words, 
to teach them so to control their minds that they can apply them 
to any subject of study and especially to a subject which it is a duty 
and not a pleasure to master and understand. When this power to 
use and control the mind is once thoroughly attained, the boy or 

^ Lodge, Senator H. C, Address before the Classical Conference at 
Princeton University, June 2, 1917, in West, A. F. (Editor), Value of the 
Classics, pp. 102-03. 



460 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

girl can then learn anything which his or her mind is capable of 
receiving and acquiring. Very few minds can master every branch 
of learning. The man who can learn languages may be wholly un- 
able to go beyond the rudiments of mathematics. Some minds again 
are much more powerful than others, just as some bodies are much 
more muscular than others, and are able to go further in any direc- 
tion than the average intelligence. We all have our mental limita- 
tions. But it is none the less profoundly true that those who have 
been taught to use and control their minds can apply them to any 
subject and go as far as their individual limitations permit. So 
far all, I believe, who have reflected upon the subject will agree. 
I think we may also agree that as any form of exercise will develop 
some muscles and some forms will develop all, so any kind of study 
properly pursued, whether it is arithmetic or Sanscrit roots, will 
develop muscles of the mind and give it the power of continuous 
application by a mere exercise of the will. 

Without attempting any detailed criticism of Senator 
Lodge's statements we may point out that it illustrates an 
argument for education which is based on a theory of the 
mind which has been abandoned by practically every psy- 
chologist. The thesis to which he assumes that ** all who have 
reflected upon the subject will agree '* is exactly the thesis 
to which every psychologist will disagree or at least ques- 
tion. 

In considering the problem of "general discipline," we 
may safely discard the implications of a faculty psychology 
and turn our attention to the question of the transfer or 
spread of mental efficiency acquired in connection with the 
study of foreign language to non-linguistic fields. The vital 
question is whether efficiency gained in and through and for 
the study of foreign language can be generalized and made 
operative in other studies and activities. In Chapter XI 
were outlined theories of the possibility, method, and extent 
of the " transfer of improvement " to " generalized experi- 
ence." It was there pointed out that the possibility of trans- 
fer is universally granted, that theories differ widely as to 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 461 

the method and extent of such transfer, and that m its ulti- 
mate analysis transfer must depend on the operation of the 
laws of dissociation. It was further pointed out that the 
degree of transfer must depend on the degree in which con- 
ditions are favorable for the operation of the laws of disso- 
ciation and therefore on the degree to which the materials 
of the subject may be manipulated in teaching so as to pro- 
vide conditions favorable for those processes, the character 
of the means available, and the methods of their presenta- 
tion. It is for these reasons erroneous to assume that all 
subjects are equally valuable for transfer or that transfer 
is dependent entirely on methods of teaching. Here as else- 
where the values of a subject are to be determined both by 
the nature of its materials and by the methods of teaching 
employed. 

Doubtless some transfer or spread of improved efficiency 
is possible from the study of any subject in any manner. 
If such transfer is to be made extensive, however, the most 
favorable materials must be chosen and the most favorable 
methods employed with recognition of transfer as a definite 
end. At present neither psychological theory nor experi- 
mental evidence can afford satisfactory criteria whereby 
to estimate the transfer values of the study of foreign lan- 
guage. However, it is unjustifiably arbitrary to ignore or 
minimize the facts that (after the time of the Greeks) lan- 
guages were almost the sole materials of formal education 
up to the end of the eighteenth century and the dominant 
materials up to the end of the nineteenth century, that the 
materials of foreign language study are at least favorable 
for exercise in mental functions of the greatest value, if trans- 
ferable, that such materials are well adapted for ready man- 
ipulation and may be made favorable for transfer, and that, 
with the possible exception of mathematics, the long-con- 
tinued study of foreign languages has developed a body of 



462 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

recognized teaching method approached by no other sub- 
ject of study in the secondary-school program. 

Pending more definite knowledge of the method and 
extent of the transfer of improved efficiency one may safely 
assume the position of the Committee on Ancient Lan- 
guages, mutatis mutandis, for foreign language in general.^ 

Hence the Committee suggests that teachers of Latin and those 
responsible for the administration of the schools be on their guard 
against (1) expecting too much transfer, (2) expecting too little 
transfer, (S) expecting transfer to be automatic. Pending the estab- 
lishment of more conclusive theories of the '* transfer of improved 
efficiency," the Committee recommends a careful analysis of the 
mental traits employed in the study of Latia, to determine what 
mental traits it is desirable to transfer from that field to other 
fields, what traits are actually transferred, and what other traits 
may be so transferred. 

The Committee expresses its belief that among the mental 
traits involved in the study of Latin wherein transfer is most to 
be expected will be found the following: habits of mental work, 
tendency to neglect distracting and irrelevant elements, ideals of 
thoroughness, ideals of accuracy and precision, and attitudes to- 
ward study and intellectual achievement. 

The character of the Latin language, the well-established organ- 
ization of materials for the study of the language, and the existence 
of a well-defined body of methods of teaching the language con- 
tribute to the development of the values indicated above. 

The Committee further holds that in proportion as such po- 
tential values are consciously the aim of the work in Latin and 
consciously developed, in like proportion conditions are favor- 
able to their realization as actual results of the work in Latin. 

202. Values for language-thought relations. Among the 
claims for the values of the study of a foreign language is the 
claim that it aids greatly in the improvement of ability to 
use one's native tongue. As ordinarily presented arguments 
in support of that claim deal with a very vital issue in a very 

* Report of the Committee on Ancient Languages, Commission on the Re- 
organization of Secondary Education, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 463 

superficial way, being limited to etymological and vocabu- 
lary factors and almost neglecting the close relation between 
language use and the mental processes. Here we may revert 
to considerations adduced in Chapter XII. It was there 
stated that language is to be conceived not only as an instru- 
ment for the communication of thought, but also as an in- 
strument for thinking itself, and that the aims and values 
of language study in the secondary school must recognize 
that fact. It was also pointed out that the problem of the 
school in respect to language is to transform the pupil's 
language into an instrument for assisting and conveying 
thought, i.e., to make it a flexible intellectual instrument as 
well as a tool for ordinary expression. Finally, Dewey's sug- 
gestions concerning the way in which this transformation is 
to be accomplished were interpreted to involve three ele- 
ments: (1) the development of a capital stock of words; 
(2) the development of increasing precision and accuracy in 
the use of words as related to thought; (3) the development 
of habits of interrelating those words so as to facilitate con- 
secutive thinking and consecutive discourse. It now re- 
mains to point out how the study of a foreign language may 
aid in those three processes. 

(1) Enlargement of vocabulary : While the problem of the 
enlargement of vocabulary, in the sense of increasing the 
number of word symbols more or less at the command of the 
individual, is in many ways so closely related to the pro- 
cesses of rendering terms more precise and accurate tools 
that the two processes are perhaps best considered together, 
two important factors involved in the study of a foreign lan- 
guage may be considered here. 

(a) Attention has been called previously to the fact that 
there is a constant tendency for the individual to accumulate 
verbal symbols, particularly abstract and general words and 
words representing qualities and relationships, without clear 



464 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

consciousness of their meanings. In the development of our 
use of language there comes a time when the ability to 
understand words heard or seen (especially in a context) far 
outstrips our ability to use those words to assist thought or 
to express thought, and only partially to grasp the thought 
expressed by those words when heard or seen in any new 
context. In the study of a foreign language, especially in 
the process of translation, consciousness of the meaning of 
the word of the mother tongue is a necessity before the 
thought can be interpreted, though exception to this state- 
ment must be made in cases where the term to be translated 
has a single equivalent in the mother tongue. That con- 
scious attention to the meaning of terms which may be min- 
imized in the use of the mother tongue when its use becomes 
more or less mechanical is highly fostered in the study of a 
foreign tongue, particularly in the process of translation. 
This arises from two facts: first, that in a large proportion 
of cases terms of the foreign language have not exact equiv- 
alents in the mother tongue; second, that the context does 
not give meaning to the specific term in the same ready way 
in which the context of the mother tongue has rendered aid 
to its interpretation. 

(6) The amount of aid afforded to the enlargement of 
vocabulary by a knowledge of words in a foreign tongue 
from which words in the mother tongue have been derived 
or to which they are etymologically related is doubtless at 
times much exaggerated. This should, however, not blind 
us to the undoubted fact that such etymological values exist 
and ought not be minimized. The number of words in the 
English language derived directly or indirectly from the 
Latin has been estimated as high as fifty or sixty per cent 
of our total vocabulary. The number of words derived 
directly or indirectly from Greek has been estimated as high 
as twelve per cent. The number of words derived from 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 465 

French has been estimated as high as one third of our total 
vocabulary. The Anglo-Saxon element of our language is 
closely related etymologically to the German as a member 
of the same family of languages. These are facts which 
cannot safely be completely ignored. It should be noted 
also that words of the English language derived from Greek, 
Latin, and French sources are those most closely related to 
precise and accurate meanings (many were introduced for 
that very purpose), while our Anglo-Saxon words are the 
more common terms for " ordinary affairs and conveni- 
ences." 

(2) Rendering terms more precise and accurate instruments 
of thought and expression : The enlargement of the capital 
stock of vocabulary and the rendering it more precise and 
accurate are in reality part and parcel of the same process 
when properly conducted, and in dealing with the enlarge- 
ment of the vocabulary through the study of a foreign lan- 
guage we have already encroached to some extent on the 
present topic. In this specific connection importance may 
be attached to the study of a foreign language because of the 
practice which it affords in relating words to the thought. 
Terms in a^y one language seldom have exact equivalents 
in any other language. Hence the interpretation of one lan- 
guage in terms of another necessarily involves a constant 
comparison and weighing of terms more or less similar, a 
selection and choice of the correct words to express the 
thought, and a judgment of the thought to be conveyed by 
the word or words employed. Thus, consider the amount 
of comparison, discrimination, and choice involved in the 
translation of the Latin word res under varying conditions 
— thing, object, event, circumstance, occurrence, matter, con- 
dition, situation, act, property, factor, fact, reality, effect, sub- 
stance, possession, benefit, profit, advantage, interest, weal, 
cause, reason, ground, account, business, case, suit, etc., etc. 



466 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Now, increased precision and accuracy in the use of lan- 
guage and thought must result almost exclusively from 
practice in comparing, discriminating, and selecting the 
appropriate word for the desired thought element, and con- 
ditions favorable for such comparison, discrimination, and 
selection for the better relationing of words and thought are 
those which do not merely permit, but actually demand, the 
operation of those processes. Those conditions may be 
amply provided in the study of a foreign language. 

It is to be noted in this connection that, wherever single 
exact equivalents are associated in the foreign and the 
mother tongues, no such comparison, discrimination, selec- 
tion, and relationing can result, the mere substitution of 
symbols results, and hence increased precision and accuracy 
is impossible. Since the proportion of exact equivalents 
differs in the various foreign languages this factor permits 
some measure of the relative values of the study of foreign 
languages with reference to those now under consideration. 
It is to be noted also that such values as those considered 
in the preceding paragraphs involve the close relationing 
of English and the foreign language with emphasis on trans- 
lation, etc., a fact to be recognized as an element affecting 
the question of methods of teaching foreign languages which 
will be briefly discussed in a later section. 

(3) The development of habits of interrelating words so as 
to facilitate consecutive thinking and consecutive discourse : 
Here possibly more than in any other respect the study of a 
foreign language may assist expression and thought. The 
English language, with its unusually large vocabulary of 
words borrowed from almost every possible source, with its 
abund-ance of approximate synonyms well adapted to ex- 
press numerous shades of meaning and to permit extensive 
discrimination in thinking and expression, is well adapted 
to its needs as an instrument of expression and for intellec- 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 467 

tual enterprises. To these ends also it is well adapted by 
reason of the relative flexibility which permits its easy 
manipulation. However, acquired in the early stages for 
purposes of social intercourse and employed commonly for 
purposes of everyday use in circumstances which do not 
emphasize its use as a precise and accurate instrument of 
thinking or expression, its use does not enforce such con- 
scious relationing of words and expressions as is involved in 
the use of a more synthetic language. Without a certain 
amount of such conscious relationing conditions are not 
favorable for the transformation of the use of language for 
the ordinary affairs of everyday life into its use as an intel- 
lectual instrument. 

It is just here that the study of a foreign language, espe- 
cially a language which is more synthetic, may be made of 
service for the accomplishment of such a transformation. 
In the study of a foreign language that conscious relationing 
of terms and phrases not only may but must take place and 
wherever translation is involved it must take place in the 
mother tongue as well as in the foreign language. Such a 
process becomes necessary as a result of vocabulary differ- 
ences previously emphasized and as a result of differences 
in word order and differences in inflectional usages in the 
mother tongue and in the foreign language. 

In the entire discussion of this section it is to be noted that 
there is emphasized not a transfer of elements from one lan- 
guage to another, not a transfer of mental functions, but 
the development of improved efficiency in the use of the 
mother tongue as related to the mental elements which can 
be grasped and retained only by means of its terms. In 
other words there is involved no question of general dis- 
cipline or transfer except as language, operating as an instru- 
ment in all intellectual enterprises, may be considered a 
common element in the training and application situations. 



468 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

203. The mother tongue and foreign languages. It is im- 
portant to remember that in the study of the mother tongue 
and in the study of a foreign language one of the most funda- 
mental objectives is in many respects the same — the 
development of an ability to employ language (the mother 
tongue) as an instrument for thinking and for expression, 
as an intellectual instrument and as a social instrument. 
It is important also to remember that, while the use of lan- 
guage in both respects must ultimately be manifested in the 
use of the mother tongue, there is really involved a change 
in the mental processes which underly language use, i.e., the 
relation of language to mental life must constantly be kept in 
mind. If this theory be recognized as valid it must be recog- 
nized also that the general values of the study of the mother 
tongue and the indirect values of the study of a foreign lan- 
guage involve much the same problem. 

One of the most important and most persistent problems 
involved in the study of foreign languages in the secondary 
school raises the question whether it would not be better to 
devote more attention to the mother tongue and less to the 
foreign languages, whether more value could be gained from 
a relatively short additional period devoted to the study of 
English than from the relatively long period now devoted 
to the study of foreign languages. Two separate questions 
are involved here, one affecting the matter of direct social- 
cultural values, the other affectiug the matter of indirect 
linguistic values. 

(1) Direct values : Among the direct values commonly 
claimed for the study of foreign languages were mentioned: 
(a) social-intercourse values; (6) vocational values; (c) in- 
strumental-propaedeutic values; (d) social-cultural values. 
All those values may be justified to some extent when con- 
sidered limited and contingent. The only serious point of 
conflict between the values of the study of English and the 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 469 

study of a foreign language, as far as direct values are con- 
cerned, is found in connection with the social-cultural values 
claimed for the study of a foreign language. Here the ques- 
tion arises whether the time devoted to the study of a foreign 
language for the purpose of becoming acquainted with for- 
eign literature, history, life, etc., through the medium of the 
foreign language can be justified when many of those values 
can be attained through the medium of the mother tongue 
or can be evaluated in relation to other studies carried on 
through the mother tongue. This point has already been 
considered in a preceding section. It need only be repeated 
here that it is very doubtful that the study of a foreign lan- 
guage can be justified for secondary-school pupils in any 
high degree on the basis of such values. 

(2) Indirect values : The indirect values commonly claimed 
for the study of a foreign language were classified as: (a) 
transfer values; (6) general linguistic values. Concerning 
the transfer values little can be said here further than has 
already been said in chapter XI. This much, however, may 
be added, that methods, habits, ideals, and attitudes cannot 
be transferred unless they are actually developed in the 
original training. It requires little examination to learn that 
as yet the teaching of English has failed to secure methods, 
habits, ideals, and attitudes of learning comparable to those 
secured in the teaching of foreign languages. Whether or 
not transfer is possible, this much is sure, that nothing can 
be transferred to other fields which has not been developed 
in the original training situation. 

The most important problem involved in the attempt to 
evaluate the study of the mother tongue and the study of a 
foreign language is found in connection with the relative 
merits of the two as helps in the employment of language 
as an instrument for intellectual enterprises and the com- 
munication of thought. Attention has previously been called 



470 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

to the fact that the teaching of Enghsh suffers from some 
serious Kmitations, most of which arise from the fact that it 
is difficult to employ the language which is used primarily 
for purposes of everyday affairs for the purpose of convert- 
ing that same instrument into a tool for the handling of pre- 
cise and accurate notions. Training pupils in language use 
through composition, for example, suffers from the fact that 
the teacher can tell only that what the pupil says or writes 
expresses something intelligible: he cannot tell that it ex- 
presses correctly and clearly what the pupil was striving to 
express. In other words he cannot relate the pupil's English 
to the pupil's thought. On the other hand, in the translation 
of a passage in a foreign language the exact thought to be 
interpreted is a known factor and the teacher presumedly 
knows what use of the mother tongue will precisely and 
accurately express that thought. For the teacher to know 
that the pupil is properly relating language to thought he 
must know both the thought to be expressed and the lan- 
guage in which it should be expressed. This is possible in 
a foreign language: it is impossible in employing English 
alone. In all this it is, of course, to be noted that detailed 
word relationing is the important element. The interpreta- 
tion of larger thought units, the general plot, or argument, is 
quite another matter. The problem here involved is the 
improvement of language use, not the interpretation in 
general terms of content. 

The very facility with which the pupil employes his 
mother tongue in ways adequate for the ordinary affairs and 
conveniences of everyday life is one of the greatest handi- 
caps to the attempt to convert it into a more effective intel- 
lectual instrument. The pupil rebels against attempts to 
improve an instrument which is quite satisfactory to his 
immature mind. 
, 204. The relative values of foreign languages. The 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 471 

preceding considerations have established some criteria 
for judging the relative values of the study of the different 
foreign languages commonly found in the program of the 
secondary school. Some limited application of those criteria 
may be made here. 

(i) Direct values, iciih emphasis on direct and specific use : 
For purpose of social intercourse and for commercial pur- 
poses it is clear that the values of the ancient languages, 
Latin and Greek, are nil and the values of the modern lan- 
guages, while high, are limited to a relatively small number 
of individuals and for the majority of secondary-school 
pupils are very contingent. For certain other vocational 
purposes, for instrumental-prop sedeutic purposes all study 
of foreign language is limited and contingent. For social- 
cultural purposes it would be difficult to estimate the rela- 
tive values of the different foreign languages. He would 
be a daring individual who would attempt to estimate the 
relative social-cultural values of Greek, Roman, German, 
French, and Spanish civilizations for the American citizen. 
It should be remembered also that here values are doubtful 
in view of the possibility of attaining them more economi- 
cally through the medium of translations and through the 
study of the social sciences. 

(^) Indirect values, with emphasis on general values and 
the learning process : The unsatisfactory nature of our knowl- 
edge of transfer values makes it an almost hopeless task to 
attempt to estimate transfer values of the various foreign 
languages. If such values exist to an appreciable extent it is 
a tenable thesis that the differences which are found be- 
tween the analytic character of English, French, and Span- 
ish, and the synthetic character of German, Latin, and 
Greek, may make a difference in transfer values between 
the two groups. The writer would hazard as an a-priori 
estimate the transfer values of foreign-language study, the 



472 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAEY EDUCATION 

ascending order as follows: Spanish, French, German, 
Greek, Latin. Numerous investigations have been made of 
the relative standing of pupils studying different foreign 
languages in the secondary school. The results of those 
investigations have almost invariably indicated some super- 
iority in favor of those studying Latin. However, the inves- 
tigations themselves have been so unsatisfactory for the 
most part that little dependence can be placed on the re- 
sults, largely because they have failed to show whether that 
superiority was due to the effect of the study of Latin or 
to the fact that pupils of higher selection study Latin. ^ 

That the study of a foreign language contributes some- 
thing to one's ability to use his own language can scarcely 
be disputed. The pertinent questions are: What is the 
amount of that contribution? and, What are the relative 
values of different foreign languages for that purpose? The 
first of these two questions has been considered above and 
the ground taken that the amount of that contribution 
affords justification for the study of a foreign language by 
secondary-school pupils. The second question remains to 
be considered. What are the relative linguistic values of 
the study of Spanish, French, German, Greek, Latin? The 
answer to this question will be considered, first, in a-priori 
theory, and, secondly, by interpreting the results of experi- 
mental investigations. 

In the a-priori theory presented in preceding sections it 
was pointed out that the study of a foreign language assists 
in the development of linguistic ability by increasing the 

1 Cf. correlation studies by Burris, W. P., Wissler, C, Parker, S. C, 
Brinkerhoff, Morris, and Thorndike — all quoted by Thorndike, E. L., 
Educational Psychology (1903 edition), pp. 35-38; Dotey, A. 1., reported by 
Strayer, G. D., The Abilities of Special Groups of High-School Students in 
the Subjects which they Studied, School Review Monographs, vol. iii, pp. 7-11; 
Starch, D., "Some Experimental Data on the Value of Studying Foreign 
Languages," School Review, vol. xxin, pp. 697-703; vol. xxv, pp. 241-48. 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 473 

extent of vocabulary, by rendering vocabulary more precise 
and accurate as an intellectual instrument, and by aiding 
the development of habits of interrelating words so as to 
facilitate consecutive thinking and consecutive discourse. 
It was pointed out also that vocabulary development is 
assisted through the study of a foreign language by the addi- 
tion of new terms, by the necessary comparison, discrimina- 
tion, and selection of terms as related to thought elements. 
One measure, therefore, of the relative values of the study of 
foreign languages is to be found in the differences in their 
vocabularies demanding careful comparison, discrimination, 
and selection of terms in the mother tongue as expressing 
the intended thought. Now in this respect there is a great 
difference between the modern languages and the ancient 
languages. The modern languages all express modern 
thought in the modern way. Both the thought and the 
manner of expressing the thought are much closer in the 
case of modern languages than in the case of an ancient 
language and a modern language. At first thought this 
might appear to offer an advantage in favor of the study of 
a modern language. The opposite is, however, the case 
where not content but practice in comparison, discrimina- 
tion, and selection are the important elements involved. 
The closer the vocabulary and the manner of expressing 
thought in the case of two languages the less is the oppor- 
tunity and necessity for those elements. The more different 
the vocabularies and the manner of expressing thought the 
greater is the opportunity and necessity for careful compari- 
son, discrimination, and selection without which the inter- 
pretation into the mother tongue is of little value other 
than for content. If this be true we cannot do otherwise 
than assign superiority to the study of Latin and Greek as 
far as these linguistic values alone are concerned. 

In developing habits of interrelating words for the pur- 



474 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

pose of facilitating consecutive thought and consecutive 
discourse also it was suggested that assistance may be ren- 
dered by the study of a foreign language through practice 
in analyzing related terms and expressions. Here the factors 
involved in evaluating foreign languages as assisting this 
process are (a) differences in word order, and (6) differences 
in inflectional and syntactical usages. The greater these 
differences, the greater the necessity imposed on the pupil 
of consciously attending to the interrelating of terms em- 
ployed for the expression of thought. In point of the amount 
of difference in word order there can be no hesitation in 
classifying the Romance languages, French and Spanish, 
in a class closely similar to English, classifying Latin and 
Greek as far removed from English, and German as occupy- 
ing a position between the other two classes, nearer the first 
than the second. Such values as arise here affect the lan- 
guages in ascending order: French and Spanish, German, 
Greek, Latin. In point of the amount of difference in 
inflectional and syntactical usages the classification would 
place French and Spanish relatively close to English, 
German, Latin, and Greek relatively remote from English. 

Experimental investagations of the relative values of the 
foreign languages as studies are more numerous than valu- 
able or reliable. As samples we may consider two investiga- 
tions, one of which is claimed to indicate great improvement 
of linguistic ability as the result of the study of Latin as 
compared with the results of the study of German, the other 
held by the investigator to indicate little improvement as 
the result of the study of Latin. 

(a) Perkins conducted an experiment in the commerical 
department of the Dorchester (Massachusetts) High School 
where the study of Latin had been introduced as an elective 
in the commercial courses on the theory that it would im- 
prove the use and understanding of the pupils' English. 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 475 

After the course had been put into operation and had ap- 
proved itself to the empirical judgment of those responsible 
an attempt was made to secure quantitative measurements 
of the results. The methods employed and the results 
obtained may be stated in the investigator's words : ^ 

Obviously, the first step was to select two sets of pupils of equal 
ability, one set in the second year of Latin, and the other in the 
second year of a modern language. Accordingly we chose pupils 
such that each group had virtually the same average mark in Latin, 
on the one hand, and modern language, on the other, and also in 
English, with the result, in actual figures, that the non-Latin group 
in the two studies averages 0.5 of 1 per cent the higher. To make 
doubly sure that the Latin pupils were not favored, the non-Latin 
group were taken from the section of Mr. Murdock, a classical 
scholar, who in his English teaching emphasizes the Latin element 
in the language. There were twenty -five in each set, all in the second 
year of the school. 

Six measurements were made with the results indicated 
in the following table. 

Table CXXIV 



Averages of groups 



TesU 



1. Spelling 

2. Use of words in sentences 

3. Definitions and parts of speech 

4. Meanings of words and spelling (first test) . . 

5. Excellence in vocabulary 

6. Meaning of words and spelling (second test) 



K anything this table proves too much. 

^ Perkins, A. S., " Latin as a Vocational Study in the Commercial Course," 
The Classical Journal, vol. x, pp. 7-16; cf. also same "Latin as a 'Practical' 
Study," The Classical Journal, vol. viii, no. 7. 




476 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Starch investigated a number of phases of the relation of 
the study of foreign languages to linguistic development. 
Some of the results obtained are indicated in the following 
tables. 1 

Table CXXV. Median Grades in (University) 
Freshman English 

54 students who entered with Latin only 83 . 9 per cent 

97 students who entered with German only 82.7 per cent 

Table CXXVI. Size of Vocabulary of Latin and Non- 
Latin Students ^ 





University students 


High-school juniors 




Number 


Grade 
•per cent 


Number 


Grade 
-per cent 


Latin groups 


139 
50 


60.9 

58.2 


14 
32 


54.7 


Non-Latin group 


50.2 



Table CXXVU. Effect of Foreign-Language Study on 
Knowledge of Grammar and Usage: High-School Pupils 



Years of foreign-language study 





8 weeks 

1 year. . 

2 years. 

3 years. 



Number of pupils 



12 
50 
18 
39 

27 



Average scores 

for knowledge of 

grammar 



14.7 
20.8 
25.5 
24.8 
28.6 



Average scores 

for correctness 

of usage 



32.2 
43.0 
43.4 
45.9 

47.7 



205. The place of foreign languages. The place which 
instruction in foreign languages is to occupy in the American 
secondary school must be determined by the relative impor- 

^ Starch., D., loc. cit. 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 477 

tance which is to be attached to the different values consid- 
ered in the preceding sections. Until within recent years the 
greater importance has been attached to the indirect and 
general values ascribed to the study of a foreign language. 
Within recent years the tendency has been in the direction 
of emphasis on the direct values of such study. If that ten- 
dency proceeds to its logical end it must be recognized that 
the relative prominence heretofore given to foreign language 
should be greatly decreased, since those direct values are 
limited and contingent. On the other hand, if recognition is 
to be given to indirect and general values, rather extensive 
attention must be given to the study of foreign languages. 
Justification for the large proportion of secondary-school 
pupils at present studying foreign languages and for the 
amount of time at present devoted to the study of foreign 
languages in the secondary school cannot be found on the 
basis of direct and immediately utilitarian values. On the 
other hand, if claims for general and indirect values are 
valid, some grounds may be found for considerable attention 
to foreign-language study. 

While any adequate consideration of methods of teaching 
a foreign language cannot be attempted here, it may be 
noted in passing that if direct values alone are to determine 
the aims of foreign language instruction there can be no 
doubt that the so-called " direct methods " in some form 
must obtain. On the other hand, if the aims are dominantly 
determined by the indirect values great importance must 
be attached to the use of the mother tongue and to transla- 
tion. In the majority of classes it is altogether probable 
that methods of teaching are demanded which emphasize 
the best elements of the " direct method '* without sacrificing 
the importance of the mother tongue and without neglecting 
the values of translation. 



478 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Make a survey of the commercial houses of any town and ascertain the 
demand for those who have a knowledge of foreign languages for com- 
mercial purposes. 

2. Analyze the work in German or French in any high school to determine 
what social-cultural values are involved. 

3. To what extent is a knowledge of Latin or Greek valuable to a lawyer? 
— to a physician? — to a clergyman? 

4. Evaluate the various methods of teaching a modern foreign language 
in terms of the values considered in this chapter. 

.5. In a large high school carry out the following experiment: From pupUs 
now in the senior class select two groups, group 1 composed of those 
who studied one and only one foreign language during the sophomore 
years, group 2 composed of those who in the freshman and sopho- 
more years studied no foreign language; examine the grades in English 
received by those pupils in the last grade of the elementary school 
or the work of the first term of the high school; pair off pupils in the 
two original groups according to the grades received in the earlier 
work in English, so as to secure two groups of equal English ability 
as thus measured, leaving exceptional cases out of further considera- 
tion. Compare the relative standing in English in the junior year of 
the high school of the two groups. Compare their relative standing in 
all other high-school work in the junior year. 

6. Devise a study of the relative accomplishment of students studying 
Latin or French, or German, somewhat along the lines laid down in 
the above. 

7. In any high school estunate as nearly as possible the numbers of pupils 
who may properly study a foreign language for its du-ect-use values. 

8. Make a study of the college-entrance requirements in foreign languages. 

9. In any high school determine the proportions of pupils who drop Latin, 
French, or German after one year of study; after two years: after three 
years. 

10. What are the arguments for and against the study of a foreign language 
in the first or second year of the junior high school, i.e., at about the 
ages of 12-13. 

1 1 . What are the arguments for and against the requu-ement of some foreign- 
language study some time in the secondary-school course? 

SELECTED REFERENCES 
I. General: 

Dewey, J., How We Think, especially pp. 170-87. 
Flagstad, C. B., Psychologie der Sprachpddagogik. 
Henderson, E. N., Textbook in the Principles of Education, pp. 359-82. 



THE PLACE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 479 

Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, chap. vii. 
O'Shea, M, V., Linguistic Development and Education, pp. 298-327. 
Von Sallwitrk, E., Fiinf Kapitel vom Erlernen fremder Sprachen. 
Starch, D., Educational Measurements, chaps, xi-xm. 

II. Ancient languages: 

Bennett, C. E., and Bristol, G. P., The Teaching of Latin and Greek 
in the Secondary School, especially pp. 1-49, 217-24, 

Corcoran, C, Studies in the History of Classical Teaching. 

Headlam, J. W., The Teaching of Classics in the Secondary Schools 
of Germany, Board of Education (England), Special Reports, 
vol. XX. 

Kelsey, F. W., Latin and Greek in American Education. 

Lodge, G., "The Value of the Classics in Training for Citizen- 
ship," Teachers College Record, vol. xviii, pp. 111-121. 

National Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Educa- 
tion, Report of Committee on Ancient Foreign Languages, Bureau 
of Education Bulletin. 

Perkins, A. S., "Latin as a Vocational Study in the Commercial 
Course," The Classical Journal, vol. x, pp. 7-16; cf. also same, 
"Latin as a 'Practical' Study," The Classical Journal, vol. vin, 
no. 7. 

Rand, E. K., Wenley, R. M., and Shorey, P., "A Symposium on 
the Value of Humanistic, Particularly Classical, Studies," School 
Review, vol. xviii, pp. 441-59, 513-29, 585-617. 

Slaughter, M. S., The High-School Course in Latin. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xiii. 

West, A. F. (Editor), Value of the Classics. 

Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary School Studies, especially 
pp. 60-885. 

Committee of Twelve of the American Philological Association 
Report on Courses in Latin and Greek for Secondary Schools. 

III. Modern languages: 

Armstrong, E. C, " The Place of Modem Languages in American 

Education," School Review, vol. xix, pp. 596-609. 
Bagster-CoUins, E. W., The Teaching of German in Secondary Schools, 

especially pp. 6-38. 
Bahlsen, L., The Teaching of Modern Languages. 
Board of Education (England); Special Reports on Educational 

Subjects, vol. II, pp. 648-79; vol. iii, pp. 461-533, et al. 
Breul, K., The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages. 
Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary School Studies, especially 

pp. 86-103 (Bureau of Education edition). 
Committee of Twelve of the Modern Language Association of 

America, Report. 



480 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Eggert, B., Der Psychologische Zusammenhang in der Didaktik des 

NeusprachlichenReformunterrichts. 
Hall, G. S., Educational Problems, vol. ii, chap. xv. 
Handschin, C. H., The Teaching of Modern Languages in the United 

States, Bureau of Education Bulletin (1913), no. 3. 
Jespersen, P., How to Teach a Foreign Language. 
Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xrv. 

Extended bibliographies: On Modern Languages, Handschin, 
C. H., The Teaching of Modern Languages in the United States; 
see above, pp. 107-49. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS IN THE PROGRAM 

OF STUDIES 

206. Historical development of the study of mathematics. 
In the history of secondary education mathematics has held 
a position second only to the classical languages and litera- 
tures. While the study had appeared in the secondary 
schools of Europe in some instances before the beginning of 
secondary education in America, it had never gained a firm 
foothold, appearing but occasionally in the form of ele- 
mentary arithmetic. In the Latin grammar schools of 
the American colonies elementary instruction in arithmetic 
appeared in some cases at an early period but never became 
prominent imtil about the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. In the Public Latin School of Boston, for example, it 
was not until some time between 1814 and 1828 that arith- 
metic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry were intro- 
duced. 

Meanwhile impetus had been given to the study of mathe- 
matics in the academy, beginning in the Franklin Academy 
with its separate mathematical department. It soon spread 
to nearly every academy established. Thus, when the high- 
school movement began in the third decade of the nine- 
teenth century, mathematics had already found a place 
in the secondary-school program, and in the first program 
of the English Classical (High) School of Boston in 1821 
were included arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, 
navigation, surveying, and mensuration. Thus also by the 
Massachusetts act of 1827 (the first high-school law in 
America) the teaching of algebra, geometry, and surveying 



482 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

was made mandatory in the high school of every town in the 
State having a population of five hundred families or over. 
As the high-school movement spread during the nineteenth 
century , mathematics (algebra, geometry , and trigonometry), 
became a regular part of the program in high schools through- 
out the country. 

Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century a knowl- 
edge of the fundamentals of arithmetic constituted the only 
requirement in mathematics for college entrance, and that 
requirement was not universal until that time. Algebra was 
made an admission requirement at Harvard in 1820 and in 
many other colleges by the middle of the century. By that 
time also geometry had begun to find a place in college- 
entrance requirements. By 1875 algebra and geometry 
had become firmly established as college-entrance require- 
ments and in most colleges have been thus retained up to the 
present. In 1912 every college which prescribed any subject 
other than English prescribed algebra and geometry. 

The position which mathematics has occupied in the 
program of the public secondary school for the period 1890 
to 1915 may be seen from the figures presented in Table 
CXIX. Those figures indicate that during the greater part 
of that period at any one time approximately one haK of all 
pupils were engaged in studying algebra and nearly one 
quarter in studying geometry. 

From this brief resume it may be seen that the study of 
mathematics in the American secondary school possesses 
all the advantiages and all the disadvantages which arise 
from the prestige of tradition. As a result of its important 
position in the program of studies it has developed a body 
of material and method of teaching which is well-organized 
and standardized. Its actual values have doubtless been 
enhanced in the minds of the public by the force of tradition. 
It has benefited by the fostering protection of college- 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 



483 



entrance requirements which have been powerful influ- 
ences determining the character and place of mathematics 
in the secondary school. 

207. Present status of mathematics instruction. With 
the possible exception of a few special-type schools practi- 
cally every secondary school in the United States includes 
algebra and plane geometry in its program of studies and 
in most schools those subjects are rigidly prescribed for the 
majority of pupils. Hence a very large proportion of pupils 
in the secondary school are always engaged in the study of 
mathematics, few pupils pass through the first part of their 
secondary education without some contact with the subject, 
and a measurably large proportion of the total time devoted 
to secondary education is occupied in the study of mathe- 
matics. The latest available returns (those for 1914-15) 
indicate the following figures for the numbers of pupils 
engaged in mathematical studies. 

Table CXXVHI. Pupils engaged in Mathematical 
Studies 1914-15 * 





Public schools 


Private schools 


AU schools 


Algebra 

Geometry 

Trigonometry. 


569,215 

309,383 

17,220 


48.84% 
26.55 
1.48 


66,801 
36,681 

5,258 


53.15% 
29.18 
4.18 


636,016 
346,064 

22,478 


49.26% 
26.80 
1.74 


Total 


895,818 


76.87 


108,740 


86.51 


1,004,558 


77.80 



* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. n, pp. 487-89. The 
relatively small amount of overlapping permits totaling. 

Where algebra is studied five periods per week for one 
year and geometry for a like amount of time about one 
eighth of the total time of a pupil who remains four years in 
the secondary school is devoted to mathematics. If he re- 
mains one or two years about one fourth of his total time is 



484 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

devoted to mathematics. Schools m which less than that 
amount of time is devoted to mathematics are fewer than 
schools in which a greater amount of time is devoted to it. 
Mathematics, however, is seldom required for all pupils 
throughout the course, and in this respect our practice 
differs from practice in Prussia and France. Conditions in 
Prussia may be seen from the following figures. 

Table CXXIX* 



Gymnasium .... 
Realgymnasium. 
Oberrealschule . 



Length of course 
in years 



Total number 
of periods t 



34 

42 
47 



Per cent of 
total time 



13.1 
16.0 
17.9 



* Lehrplane und Lehraufgahcn fur die hoheren Schulen in Preussen (1901), pp. 4-6. 
. t.Cf. Tables LXXXIV-LXXXVII. 

Until within recent years the theory was almost universal 
that mathematics (of a higher grade than arithmetic) should 
be required of all pupils passing through the secondary 
school. Thus in the programs suggested by the Committee 
of Ten in 1893 four periods per week of algebra were pre- 
scribed for all pupils in all courses in the first year of the 
high school, three periods of geometry per week in the sec- 
ond year, two periods of algebra and two periods of geometry 
in the third year. In addition the Committee provided an 
option of three periods of trigonometry and higher algebra 
in the fourth year.^ Even more urgent were the recommen- 
dations of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements 
through its sub-committee on mathematics in 1899, when it 
stated that: " To the close of the secondary-school course the 

^ United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Committee on Second- 
ary School Studies, pp. 46-47. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 485 

required work in mathematics should be the same for all 
pupils," and that " In the secondary school, work in mathe- 
matics should be required of all pupils throughout each of 
the four years of the course." ^ 

A reaction against such a conception has been growing in 
force within the past decade or two, the bases for that reac- 
tion being found : (1) in an increased recognition of the factor 
of individual differences in the capacities, abilities, interests, 
and probable futures of pupils; (2) in an increased recogni- 
tion of the needs of children who leave before the close of 
the high-school course, especially their vocational and social 
needs; (3) in a re-interpretation and re-direction of theories 
of the transfer of improved efficiency; (4) a lessening of the 
influence of the colleges over the secondary school; (5) 
changing conceptions of the social functions of the public 
secondary school; and (6) a recognition of the meaning of 
retardation and elimination. 

2o8. Preliminary analysis of aims and values. For pur- 
poses of analysis the values commonly claimed for the study 
of secondary-school mathematics may profitably be con- 
sidered under two general headings: (1) those values which 
arise from the relatively direct and specific use of mathe- 
matics; (2) those values which may arise indirectly through 
the development of mathematical concepts or through the 
transfer of improved efficiency. Either of these grouped 
values may again be subdivided. Thus under the head of 
direct and specific values should be considered: (a) the 
values of mathematics as measured by the directly practical 
application of its principles and processes to those affairs 
of life common to most people whatever be their vocations; 
(6) the values of mathematics as measured by the directly 

^ Report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements (July, 1899), 
published by the National Educational Association, University of Chicago 
Press, p. 148. 



486 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

practical application of its principles and processes in special 
professions or special parts of certain vocations; (c) the 
values of mathematics as measured by the direct application 
of its principles and processes to other sciences. Under the 
head of indirect values may be considered: (a) values 
claimed to arise from the study of mathematics as meas- 
ured by the development of generally valuable concepts of 
number and space relations, together with the development 
of certain mathematical thought modes; (6) the values 
claimed to arise from the study of mathematics as measured 
by the transfer or spread to other fields of improved effi- 
ciency gained in that field. For the purpose of further 
analysis in the following sections those claimed values may 
be classified and considered under the following heads: 

(1) Direct and specific use values: 
(a) General use values; 

(6) Specific vocational values; 
(c) Propsedeutic values. 

(2) Indirect and general values: 
(a) Conceptual values; 

(6) Transfer values. 

The interrelation of these values is recognized. Neverthe- 
less separate analysis of each group is profitable. 
209. Mathematics in the affairs of everyday life. 

There is no subject, except the use of the mother tongue, which 
is so intimately connected with everyday life, and so necessary to 
the successful conduct of affairs. Wherever we turn in these days 
of iron, steam, and electricity, we find that mathematics has been 
the pioneer and guarantees the results. Were its backbone of 
mathematics removed, our material civilization would inevitably 
collapse. 

But widespread as are the applications of mathematics and 
enormous as is its practical value, it may be justly urged that 
to the large majority of people its importance, though great, is 
indirect, and that the average citizen has but little need of mathe- 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 487 

matical facts, or even an opportunity to use them beyond the 
merest elements of arithmetic.^ 

In this passage Young has well stated a truth almost 
universally recognized by the mathematician but frequently 
ignored by the layman and even by schoolmen, who often 
fall into one or both of two fallacies by (a) failing to recog- 
nize the relative values of different parts of a j&eld of knowl- 
edge which go under the same name, or (6) failing to dis- 
tinguish between knowledge which is of universal value to 
civilization through a relatively few specialists and that 
which all should possess. ^ The second fallacy is recognized 
by Schultze: * 

It would be an error to infer, from the great usefulness of math- 
ematics to our civilization, an equal practical usefulness to every 
individual. The percentage of students who are likely to have 
practical use for mathematics, after leaving school or college, is cer- 
tainly small. 

And by Yocum * who 

emphasizes the distinction ignored by Mr. Spencer between 
subject matter useful to the race through the specialist, and sub- 
ject matter directly useful to the majority of individuals who are 
not sj>ecialists. 

Little of the secondary-school mathematics as it is now 
organized can be considered of direct value to the average 
individual for the practical purposes of everyday life. The 
general-use values of secondary-school mathematics are 
small. 

^ Young, J. W. A., The Teaching of Mathematics, p. 13. This and other 
extracts are quoted with the permission of the publishers, Longmans, 
Green & Co. 

2 Cf. Section 165. 

' Schultze, A., The Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Schools, pp. 
17-18. This and other extracts are quoted with, the permission of the pub- 
lishers, The Macmillan Company. 

^ Yocum, A. D., "Mathematics as a Means to Culture and Discipline," 
The Mathematics Teacher, vol. vi, p. 136. 



488 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

210. Mathematics in various vocations. 

A subject is also valuable as preparation for the contingency that 
the child in the future may take up an occupation requiring knowl- 
edge of the subject in question. For mathematics this value is 
marked, because there is a large and growing number of occupations 
which require a knowledge of mathematical results. ^ 

It must be recognized that certain occupations call for 
an extended knowledge not only of mathematical results, 
but also of mathematical principles and processes. The 
number of persons engaged in such occupations is small. 
Many other occupations call for some knowledge of mathe- 
matical results. A knowledge or use of mathematical results 
is, however, a far different thing from a knowledge of math- 
ematical principles and processes or the ability to derive 
mathematical results. In the majority of occupations which 
involve the use of mathematical results those who employ 
them commonly depend on fairly simple formulae which 
ordinarily are reduced to arithmetical terms in tables. This 
is recognized by Schultze: ^ 

The majority of business or professional callings require no 
algebra, geometry, or trigonometry, and even the professions which 
use those subjects do so to a much smaller extent than is generally 
supposed. There are navigators, surveyors, and engineers who 
make their calculations in an almost mechanical manner, without 
having perfectly clear notions of the underlying mathematical 
principles. Only for those few men who become original designers 
and investigators is true mathematical skill and knowledge indis- 
pensable. 

And by Smith: ^ 

It is well to understand, in the first place, that geometry is 
not studied, and never has been studied, because of its positive 
utility in commercial life or even in the workshop. . . . 

1 Young, J. W. A., op. cit, p. 14. ^ Schultze, A-, op. ciL, p. 18. 

8 Smith, D. E., The Teaching of Geometry, pp. 7, 90. 



THE PLACE OF JMATHEMATICS 489 

All the facts (of geometry) that a skilled mechanic or an engineer 
would ever need could be taught in a few lessons. All the rest is 
either obvious or is commercially and technically useless. 

The actual amount of algebra needed by a foreman in a machine 
shop can be taught in about four lessons, and the geometry or 
mensuration that he needs can be taught in eight lessons at the 
most. The necessary trigonometry may take eight more. . . . 

■ The values of secondary-school mathematics (or some 
parts of it) are undoubted for some parts of certain profes- 
sions. They are, however, less than is commonly thought 
and must be considered as highly contingent for most pupils. 
211. The propaedeutic values of mathematics. 

' So completely is nature mathematical that some of the more 
exact natural sciences, in particular astronomy and physics, are 
in their theoretic phases largely mathematical in character, while 
other sciences which have hitherto been compelled by the com- 
plexity of their phenomena and the inexactitude of their data to 
remain descriptive and empirical, are developing towards the 
mathematical ideal, proceeding upon the fundamental assumption 
that mathematical relations exist between the forces and the 
phenomena, and that nothing short of the discovery and formula- 
tions of these relations would constitute definitive knowledge of the 
subject. Progress is measured by the closeness of the approxima- 
tion to this ideal formulation.^ 

That a knowledge of mathematical results, principles, and 
processes is requisite for advanced work in the various sci- 
ences, mental and social as well as material, is obvious. 
Propaedeutic values are real values for the study of mathe- 
matics. It should be obvious, however, that for secondary- 
school pupils those values are limited and contingent. As 
propsedeutic for secondary-school science and the elementary 
science courses in college the values of secondary-school 
mathematics is commonly over-estimated, though attention 
has frequently been called to the very small amount of 
* Young, J. W. A,, op. cit., p. 15; of. Schultze, A., oy. cit., p. 15. 



490 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

mathematical knowledge required for effective study of 
physics and chemistry. Thus Milliken: ^ 

There is no mathematics needed in elementary physics even as 
it is now, except the simplest algebraic equations with one un- 
known, and the single geometrical proposition of the proportion- 
ality of the sides of similar triangles. 

On the whole it is probably safe to say that the number of 
pupils for whom the propaedeutic values of the study of 
mathematics are appreciably important is relatively small, 
being somewhat less than the number of pupils who continue 
their education beyond the secondary-school stage. 

212. Direct values limited and contingent. Critics of the 
study of supra-arithmetical mathematics are almost unani- 
mous in their judgments that the study of algebra, geome- 
try, and other higher mathematics in the secondary school, 
as they are at present organized, cannot be justified for all 
pupils or even for any large proportion of pupils on the basis 
of their direct and specific values. Thus Schultze: ^ 

If mathematics, however, had no value as a mental discipline, 
its teaching in the secondary schools could hardly be justified 
solely on grounds of its bread-and-butter value. 

And Karpinski: ^ 

The practical side of mathematics has frequently been over- 
emphasized in popular discussions of its function. . . . And yet, 
were we to confine the instruction in arithmetic, geometry, algebra, 
and trigonometry to these phases which enjoy a reasonable meas- 
ure of actual application, the time devoted to these subjects could 
be cut in half. Mathematical instruction must justify itself as 
educational material aside from its applied values. 

1 Milliken, R. A., School and Society, vol. ni, p. 167. 

2 Schultze, A., op. cit., p. 18. 

3 Karpinski, L. C, p. 132, of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High-School 
Education. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 491 

And Young: ^ 

The average citizen has but little need of mathematical facts, 
or even opportunity to use them beyond the merest elements of 
arithmetic. 

In interpreting such statements as these three facts 
should be kept in mind: (1) that the direct and specific val- 
ues of algebra, geometry, and other secondary-school mathe- 
matics as at present organized must always be limited to 
certain groups of pupils and cannot be universal; (2) that 
they are contingent rather than certain; (3) that the state- 
ments refer to mathematics as organized into systematic 
sciences, wherein logical and purely mathematical relation- 
ships determine the choice and arrangement of materials and 
the methods of their presentation in teaching. Points (1) 
and (2) have already been considered. Point (3) deserves 
some further consideration. 

For pupils who may become mathematical specialists or 
who may have opportunity to employ mathematical facts, 
principles, and processes extensively in advanced work, 
systematic and logically organized courses in algebra, 
geometry, and other higher mathematics, are justified on the 
basis of their direct values. For other pupils no such justi- 
fication can be found. On the other hand, there are certain 
mathematical facts, principles, and processes, involved in 
those subjects, which are of sufficiently common applica- 
tion in the affairs of life to warrant their acquirement on the 
part of many if not most individuals. Here are to be con- 
sidered elements classified by Yocum: ^ 

(1) All mathematical material specifically useful to those not 
specialists, that is sujQBciently many-sided and recurring in its 
applications or essential in some unique usefulness, to be made 
definite and certain for all. . . . 

^ Young, J. W. A., op. cit., p, IS. 

2 Yocum, A. D., "Mathematics as a Means to Culture and Discipline,'* 

The Mathematics Teacher^ vol. vi, pp. 136-37. 



492 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

(2) All mathematical material sufficiently useful to those not 
specialists which, while not sufficiently many-sided and recurring 
to be made certain for all, is many-sided and recurring enough and 
strong enough in its sensational or emotional appeal to be presented 
for such individual comprehension and retention as may result. 

Recognition of the importance of some mathematical 
facts, principles, and processes for the majority of individ- 
uals, on the basis of direct and specific values, would justify 
the organization of a course in mathematics to meet the 
needs common to most individuals. Such a course would 
include those, and only those, mathematical facts, principles, 
and processes which may reasonably be expected to have 
practical applications in the lives of most people, involving 
elements of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and such other 
mathematics as may be appropriate. Some such course of 
"composite" or "combined" mathematics might well find 
its place in the junior high school where it would serve not 
only to provide useful mathematical knowledges to those 
who will leave school early and to those who will not further 
study mathematics, but would also serve as a valuable prog- 
nostic factor for those who would later in the senior high 
school undertake the systematic study of algebra, geometry, 
or other higher mathematics. Such further mathematical 
knowledges as may be appropriate to industrial or other 
vocational courses should be provided in the vocational 
courses themselves in direct connection with their vocational 
applications. 

213. Indirect values claimed : number and space concepts. 
Among claims sometimes made for the study of mathemat- 
ics is the claim that it develops number and space concepts 
which are fundamental elements in mental life. Thus the 
National Committee of Fifteen states : ^ 

1 National Committee of Fifteen, Final Report on Geometry Syllabus, 
The Mathematics Teacher, vol. v, p. 44. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 493 

The study of geometry leads also to an appreciation of the 
dependence of one geometric magnitude on another, in other words 
to the tangible concept oi functionality. 

The study of geometry cultivates space intuition and an appre- 
ciation of and control over forms existing in the material world, 
which can be secured from no other topic in the high school cur- 
riculum. 

Likewise the study of algebra has frequently been urged 
as a means of extending the concept of number relations 
to desirable limits beyond the concrete field of arithmetic. 
Beyond doubt number and space concepts play an important 
part in the interpretation of all quantitative phenomena. It 
would be difficult to say, however, whether additions to such 
concepts as arithmetic has developed are important enough 
for the majority of individuals to justify any extensive study 
of algebra or geometry. None but an a-pfiori or empirical 
answer can be given to this question. 

Closely related to the development of number and space 
relations is the development of "the language of mathe- 
matics." Thus Karpinski: ^ 

Equally important is the fact that like the mother-tongue the 
language of mathematics is employed in the daily life of the child; 
to formulate this in the language of the psychologist there is a 
related body of apperceptive material already present in the child 
consciousness. 

The literature of almost all fields of science (in the broad- 
est sense of that term) is replete with *' mathematical lan- 
guage," and the " general reader " should have some un- 
derstanding of it. Again, however, research is necessary to 
determine how far supra-arithmetical study is necessary for 
the development of " mathematical language " valuable for 
the average individual. None but empirical estimates are 
at present possible. 

1 Karpinski, L. C, op. cit.y p. 133. 



494 PKINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

2 14. Mathematics and the transfer of improved efficiency. 
From the time of its introduction into the program of the 
secondary school the study of mathematics has been justified 
by its advocates to a considerable extent on the basis of its 
values as a means of " mental discipline." With the growing 
realization of the limitations of its direct values and their 
contingent character greater and greater emphasis has been 
placed on the disciplinary values of secondary-school mathe- 
matics. Thus Schultze: ^ 

Mathematics is primarily taught on account of the mental train- 
ing it affords and only secondarily on account of the knowledge of 
facts it imparts. 

Thus also Smith: 2 

Here, then, is the dominating value of geometry, its value as 
an exercise in logic, as a means of mental training, as a discipline 
in the habits of neatness, order, diligence, and above all, of honesty. 

Likewise Young: ^ 

•« But the facts of mathematics, important and valuable as they 
are, are not the strongest justification for the study of the subject 
by all pupils. Still more important than the subject matter of 
mathematics is the fact that it exemplifies most typically, clearly, 
and simply certain modes of thought which are of the utmost 
importance to every one. 

Since mathematics is a preferential if not a required study 
in most secondary schools, and since such general study of 
mathematics cannot be justified on the basis of direct values 
alone, it is clear that the problem of the possibility, method, 
and amount of the transfer or spread to non-mathematical 
fields of improved efficiency gained in and through the study 

^ Schultze, A., The Teaching of Mathematics in the Secondary School, 
p. 29. 

2 Smith, D. E., The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics, p. 239. 

' Young, J. W. A., The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elemerdary and 
the Secondary School, p. 17. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 495 

of mathematics is by far the most important problem to be 
considered in connection with the values of the study of 
secondary-school mathematics. No theory can justify the 
prescription of mathematics or any other study for all pu- 
pils in the secondary school. On the other hand, if exten- 
sive transfer values can be established for that subject, its 
position as a leading study in the secondary school can be 
justified. If transfer values are lacking or insignificant, 
mathematics must cease to occupy a prominent position in 
most curriculums. 

It cannot be doubted that the study of mathematics 
affords abundant opportunity for the exercise of numerous 
valuable mental traits, that its subject-matter is peculiarly 
adapted to the development of those traits as far as they 
may be applied to mathematical content, and that the ma- 
terials of mathematics lend themselves readily to manipula- 
tion for whatever purpose desired. The important question 
is, of course : Can those traits be generalized, divorced from 
mathematical content, and utilized in their improved effi- 
ciency for other content and other situations in life? 

Before attempting to answer that question, it is well to 
consider just what traits are commonly claimed by propo- 
nents of mathematical study in the secondary school to afford 
such improved efficiency. Most prominent among those 
traits are those involved in reflective thinking (reasoning) . ^ 
This claim has been considered specffically in Chapter XI 
and little more can be said here. It may, however, be re- 
peated (a) that such transfer is possible; (6) that the method 
of transfer depends on the ordinary laws of dissociation; 
(c) that the extent of such transfer depends on the degree 
in which materials are organized and presented so as to make 
conditions favorable for dissociation. It may further be 
repeated that whatever transfer is possible it cannot be 
' * Cf. Schultze, A., op. cit, pp. 18-26; Young, J. W. A., op. cit., pp. 17 jf. 



496 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

expected to operate automatically in all cases but should 
be aimed at definitely. The amount of actual transfer is 
conditioned both by the character of subject matter and 
also by the methods employed. 

In addition to the claim made for the transfer of ability 
in reasoning the many claims commonly made for transfer 
values include the following: ^ (a) development of the 
"power of concentration"; (b) development of the "con- 
structive imagination"; (c) gTowth of "mental self-reli- 
ance"; (d) development of "character"; (e) capacity for 
"generalizing conceptions"; (/) cultivation of "reverence 
for the truth"; (g) cultivating the "habit of self -scrutiny," 
etc. That these desirable mental traits may be exercised in 
the study of mathematics is undisputed. The central prob- 
lem, however, here as elsewhere, is the problem of their 
transferability, and the validity of the claims that mathe- 
matics may foster such general traits must be tested by 
theories of the method and extent of transfer in general. 
Here in particular, however, one must be on guard against 
the conception that separate "faculties" or "powers" of 
concentration, attention, constructive imagination, etc., 
exist. For the rest the discussion of the general problem 
of transfer in Chapter XI must here suffice. 

215. Characteristics claimed to favor transfer values. 
The first condition for the successful transfer of improved 
efficiency is that the trait which it is desired to transfer be 
developed in connection with the content of the training 
study. In the general discussion of transfer values it was 
suggested that subjects of study differ in the degree in which 
favorable conditions are afforded for the exercise of the 
desired trait and that the transfer of improved efficiency is 
primarily conditioned by the character of the original train- 
ing material. Secondary-school studies differ in the extent 

* Cf. Schultze, A., op. a7.,pp. 26-27; Young, J. W. A., op. cit., pp. 41 jf. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEI^IATICS 497 

to which desirable mental traits may be exercised, in the 
fitness of the materials for purposes of manipulation in 
teaching, and in the character of the materials as already 
organized for teaching. In these three respects mathematics 
possesses advantages over many subjects of study. The 
materials of mathematics, ranging all the way from the sim- 
plest to the most complex, may be manipulated almost at 
will, thus permitting the arrangement of conditions most 
favorable to dissociation. The organization of materials 
in the field of mathematics has been determined from the 
start for purposes of teaching. With regard to the ready 
manipulation of materials for the purpose of fostering trans- 
fer values mathematics shares prominence with the language 
studies. With regard to the certainty and accuracy of its 
data it supersedes all other subjects. With regard to the 
opportunity which it affords for the exercise of valuable 
mental traits most desirable to transfer, if possible, it is 
equaled by few and surpassed by none of the other subjects 
in the program of the secondary School. 

216. Rugg's experiment. The majority of investigations 
designed to determine elements of transfer have dealt with 
memory or sense and perceptual factors and for the most 
part under laboratory rather than school conditions. 
Among the most noteworthy transfer investigations con- 
cerned directly with subjects of study and conducted under 
school (college) conditions is that of Rugg, who attempted 
to determine the transfer effect of the study of descriptive 
geometry by college students. The limitations of space per- 
mit here only the Summary of Conclusions arrived at by 
Rugg: 1 

The study of descriptive geometry (under ordinary classroom 
conditions throughout a semester of fifteen weeks) in which such 

^ Rugg, H. O., The Experimental Determination of Mental Discipline 
in School Studies, pp. 114-15, 6. Quoted with the permission of the pub" 
lishers, Warwick and York. 



498 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

natural and not undue consideration is given to practice in geo- 
metrical visualization as is necessary for the solution of descriptive 
geometry problems operates: — 

(1) Substantially to increase the students' ability in solving 
problems requiring the mental manipulation of a geometrical 
nature, the content of which are distinctly different from the visual 
content of descriptive geometry itself. 

(2) Substantially to increase the students' ability in solving 
problems requiring the mental manipulation of spacial elements 
of a slightly geometrical character, i.e., problems utilizing the fun- 
damental elements of geometry (the point, line, and plane), but 
apart from a geometrical setting, and in such form as to offer no 
geometrical aids in solution. 

(3) Substantially to increase the students' ability in solving 
problems requiring mental manipulation of spacial elements of a 
completely non-geometrical nature, i.e., problems in which the 
straight line and plane do not appear in any way whatsoever. 

(4) The training effect of such study in descriptive geometry 
operates more efficiently in those problems whose visual content 
more closely resembles that of the training course itself, i.e., in 
those problems whose imagery content is composed of combina- 
tions of points, lines, and planes, and in which the continuity of 
the manipulating movements approaches the continuity of those in 
the training course. 

The possibility of one disciplinary outcome of a specific school 
subject, i.e., the ability in the mental manipulation of special ele- 
ments, has been established in this investigation. The experi- 
menter believes that, in general, disciplinary outcomes of school 
studies will be found in the above-listed agencies of transfer, 
i.e., the development of concepts of method in analyzing * problem' 
situations and organizing methods of procedure, the habitualizing 
of reaction to specific cues, the development of attitudes of orien- 
tation and familiarity with the type of situation to be met, and the 
extension of the range of attention. 

The numerous difficulties which surround the investigator 
in such a study as that conducted by Rugg prevent us from 
accepting the conclusions reached otherwise than as sugges- 
tive and tentative. Many more investigations in this field 
must be made before any assured judgment can be reached. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 499 

217. Criticism of mathematics as now organized. In the 
preceding discussion several points have been raised which 
afford some basis for criticism of the economy of the study 
of mathematics as at present organized in the American 
secondary school. 

(1) Previously, attention was called to the common fal- 
lacy of assuming values for a whole subject on the basis of 
values which are valid for parts only of that subject. This 
fallacy is found in the tendency to assign universal values 
to secondary-school mathematics on the basis of values 
which are valid for elementary phases of the field (arith- 
metical material) only. The resultant emphasis on direct 
values of the study of algebra and geometry is unjustified. 

(2) Current teaching of secondary-school mathematics 
commonly errs in expecting to take place too much transfer 
of mental traits exercised in the study to non-mathematical 
fields. It also errs in expecting such transfer as may be 
hoped for to take place automatically and without proper 
provision for fostering dissociation. Teachers of mathemat- 
ics must recognize that there are no general "faculties " such 
as concentration, attention, memory, reasoning, and the 
like, which can be developed independently of specific con- 
tent. The most that can be hoped for is that valuable meth- 
ods of mental activity may be transferred, that ideals of 
accuracy, standards of certainty, and the like, may be so 
established that they will be generalized from a type form 
and dissociated from mathematical content. Further, they 
must realize that, while a limited amount of transfer can be 
secured under almost any conditions, the desired amount of 
transfer can be secured only when materials and methods of 
teaching are deliberately adapted to that end and conditions 
fostering extensive transfer are provided. It is futile and 
criminal to establish the study of secondary-school mathe- 
matics on the basis of extensive transfer values and then to 



500 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

fail to meet the conditions necessary if any extensive amount 
of transfer is to be accomplished. 

(3) Attempts to emphasize applied mathematics do not 
meet the conditions favorable to extensive transfer. Valu- 
able though applied mathematics is and important though 
"real" problems may be, their function is to attain direct 
values and not to foster conditions favorable for transfer. 
It is a tenable thesis that for most pupils pure mathematics 
is superior to applied mathematics because of its greater 
transfer values. Thus Colvin: ^ 

We may then conclude that pure science is of greater disciplin- 
ary value, because (1) through the facts which it presents, ideals 
of procedure and of truth may be developed which function in a 
wider human experience, greatly to the uplift of the race; (2) the 
content and method of pure science is such that it has a broader 
field of application than has applied science, and can function as an 
identical or similar element in more situations than can applied 
science; (3) the emotion which the pure seeking after truth arouses 
is higher and less likely to be deadened by other emotions than are 
the ideals of economic improvement and social betterment, which 
are the ideals of applied science. 

It is to be noted here that applied forms of mathematics 
have their place, and an important place in the program of 
studies, but that importance attaches to the study of applied 
mathematics on the basis of its direct values for special 
groups of pupils. 

(4) The fact that justification can be found for the teach- 
ing of secondary-school mathematics on the basis of its 
indirect values and the fact that those values are not limited 
to special curriculum groups of pupils do not justify any 
assumption that all pupils should study algebra and geome- 
try. The common requirement of the study of algebra and 
geometry on the part of all pupils is opposed to the concep- 

1 Colvin, S. S., The Learning Process, pp. 249-50 et circ. Quoted with 
the permission of the publishers. The Macmillan Company. 



;the place of mathematics 501 

tion that individual differences in capacities, interests, and 
future activities must be recognized. This is true whether 
we accept or reject indirect values. 

(5) From whatever angle we approach the problem of the 
organization of mathematics the present method of isolating 
arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, and other departments 
of mathematics raises serious questions. If we approach the 
problem from the viewpoint of the nature of mathematics 
as a science, we face the fact that mathematical thought is a 
complex unit and that the various phases are so interwoven 
that separation is a tour de force for supposed educational 
advantage. If we approach it from the viewpoint of the 
applications of mathematics, we face at once the fact that 
the various phases are or may be so interrelated that a 
single application may involve at the same time arithmetic, 
algebra, and geometry. If we approach the problem from the 
viewpoint of direct values, we find that the study of arithme- 
tic, algebra, and geometry separately, in sequence, and as 
completely organized sciences is wasteful of time and energy 
and little suited to the effective application of direct values. 
Finally, if we approach the problem from the viewpoint of 
indirect values, we find that the separation in learning of the 
various phases of the science is one of the surest ways to 
lessen conditions favorable for transfer. Current criticism 
is soxmd in its insistence on a closer correlation of the depart- 
ments of mathematics in the schools. It is not so sound when 
it bases that correlation on direct and applied values alone. 

(6) In common with other studies in the secondary school 
mathematics suffers from its isolation. One of the surest 
ways in which transfer values may be materialized from the 
study of mathematics is to see that methods, ideals, and the 
like, exemplified in its study may also be exemplified in sub- 
jects dealing with content material of a different sort and so 
recognized by the pupil. Any number of examples afforded 



502 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

must be of relatively little value unless application is made 
in the fields where the application is desired. Until the 
teacher of mathematics fully recognizes the fact that the 
pupil, not the subject, is the unit to be considered and that 
the mathematical experiences of the pupil constitute but a 
small part of his total experiences, much of the value of the 
study of mathematics must be lost. No education can be 
successful unless the experiences of the individual are uni- 
fied. The correlation of the work in mathematics with the 
work in other subjects and with experiences outside the 
school must be effected if the values of mathematics itself 
are to be developed. 

218. The order and position of mathematical studies. 
The Committee of Ten recommended the earlier introduc- 
tion of algebra and geometry, suggesting that certain ele- 
ments of those subjects be introduced into the work of the 
later grades of the elementary school. With the develop- 
ment of plans for the reorganization of the school system, 
particularly in connection with the junior-senior high-school 
plan, emphasis has been placed on the earlier introduction 
of some mathematics now commonly restricted to the later 
grades. Reasons for this change are the following: (1) the 
study of arithmetic is prolonged beyond desirable bounds 
in the American schools; (2) a closer correlation between 
arithmetic, algebra, and geometry is desirable; (3) many 
boys and girls now leave school before they come into con- 
tact with any forms of algebra and geometry; (4) those who 
continue their education through the high school are delayed 
in the acquirement of a valuable tool; (5) at present the only 
opportunity to gain any knowledge of algebra or geometry 
is that afforded through the study of either in the form of a 
complete and logically organized science; (6) the change 
from the familiar field of arithmetic to the higher mathe- 
matics is too abrupt. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 503 

To ameliorate conditions implied in the reasons given for 
the earlier introduction of algebra and geometry it has been 
suggested that a course or courses in " composite " or " com- 
bined " mathematics be provided in the junior high school 
and that logically organized courses in algebra, geometry, 
and other higher mathematics be reserved for the senior 
high school. The course in " composite " mathematics in the 
junior high school would then be organized so as to include 
those elements of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry which 
may be considered as of reasonably direct value to the aver- 
age individual. Not only would such a course provide a 
diagnostic or prognostic element for later mathematical 
study and afford instruction in mathematical elements most 
useful directly to the average person, but it would also pro- 
vide whatever elements of number and space concepts or of 
" mathematical language " may legitimately be expected to 
result from some contact with algebra and geometry. In 
the senior high school provision could then be made for the 
systematic study of algebra, geometry, and other mathe- 
matics by those mathematically inclined and mathematically 
capable. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Compare the organization of mathematical study in the American 
schools, in Prussian higher schools, and in the French lycee. 

2. Examine elementary textbooks in physics and chemistry to ascertain 
the mathematical facts, principles, and processes necessary for ele- 
mentary study in those fields. Do the same for more advanced study 
in those fields. 

3. What specific mathematical abilities are required of the machinist, 
electrician, and similar artisans? 

4. What specific mathematical abilities are required of the civil engineer? 
— of the mechanical engineer? — of the mining engineer? 

5. Make a list of the supra-arithmetical facts, principles, and processes of 
mathematics that appear to be sufficiently applicable to the ordinary 
affairs of life to warrant their inclusion in a course for average pupils 
on the basis of their direct and practical values. 



504 , PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

6. Examine any textbook in geometry and classify the materials presented 
accordingly as (a) they deal with matters ordinarily accepted as valid 
on the basis of general experience; (6) they deal with facts, principles, 
or processes valuable for their application in science or occupations; 
(c) they deal with facts, principles, or processes themselves not im- 
portant; but forming the basis of important facts, principles, or 
processes. 

7. What are the arguments for and against the requirement of the study 
of algebra on the part of all pupils? — geometry? 

8. Trace the historical development of the study of mathematics in the 
American secondary school. 

9. Make a study of college admission requirements in mathematics. 

10. What are the argmnents for and against the study of algebra by girls? 
— geometry? 

11. Determine the correlation between ability to perform the formal oper- 
ations in algebra and ability to perform applied problems. 

12. Determine the correlation between ability to handle the propositions 
of geometry and ability to handle "originals." 

13. Determine the correlation of ability in arithmetic and ability in alge- 
bra; between arithmetic and geometry; between algebra and geometry. 

14. Determine the correlation between accuracy in handling algebra and 
accuracy in copying a page of printed Enghsh. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Brown, J. C, and others. Curricula in Mathematics, Bureau of Education 
Bulletin (1914), no. 45. 

Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary School Studies, pp. 104-16 (Bureau 
of Education edition). 

Committee on Entrance Requirements in Mathematics, National Educa- 
tion Association, Proceedings (1903), pp. 481 ff. 

Committee on Secondary Mathematics, Report of Commission on the Reor- 
ganization of Secondary Education, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

Evans, G. W., The Teaching of High-School Mathematics. 

International Commission on the Teaching of Mathematics, Mathematics 
in the Public and Private Secondary Schools of the United States, Bureau 
of Education Bulletin (1911), no. 16. 

Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, chaps, ii-vi. 

Moore, E. C, "Does the Study of Mathematics Train the Mind Specifi- 
cally or Universally?" School and Society, vol. vi, pp. 481-91. 

National Committee of Fifteen on Geometry Syllabus, The Mathematics 
Teacher, vol. v, no. 2 (December, 1912). 

New England Association of Teachers of Mathematics, Report of Com- 

, mittee on Secondary School Mathematics, The Mathematics Teacher, 
vd. vm, pp. 191-218. 



THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS 505 

Rugg, H. O., The Experimental Determination of Mental Discipline in School 
Studies. 

Schorling, R., Kahler, F. A., and Miller, O. M., " The Place of Mathe- 
matics in the High School," School Science and Mathematics, October, 
1916. 

Schultze, A., The Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Schools, pp. 15-29. 

Smith, D. E., The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics, especially chaps. 
VII and X. 

Smith, D. E., The Teaching of Geometry, especially chaps, i-n. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. x\tii. 

Yocum, A. D., "Mathematics as a Means to Culture and Discipline," The 
Mathematics Teacher, vol. vi, pp. 135-57. 

Young, J. W. A., The Teaching of Mathematics, chap. n. 

Extended bibliography: Bibliography of the Teaching of Mathematics (1900- 
12), Bureau of Education Bulletin (1912), no. 29. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PLACE OF THE NATUKAL SCIENCES IN THE 
PROGRAM OF STUDIES 

219. Historical development. Thougli some beginnings 
were made in the study of the natural sciences in the second- 
ary school through the sense-realism movement of the seven- 
teenth century, no appreciable study of natural science 
found a place in the secondary school until the latter part 
of the eighteenth century, or even until the beginning of 
the nineteenth century. Its real beginning was found in the 
development of the realschule and academy as a part of the 
expansion of the curriculum of the secondary school which 
characterized those movements. In America no natural 
science was found in the colonial grammar school. From the 
inception of the academy movement, however, the natural 
sciences found an increasingly important place in the second- 
ary school. By the beginning of the high-school movement 
the time was ripe for the introduction of natural science into 
the program of the public secondary school. 

In the first high school established (the Boston English 
Classical School, opened in 1821) "natural philosophy 
(physics), including astronomy" was required of all pupils 
in the last year of the course. By the regulations of 1823- 
24 natural philosophy was required in the second year of the 
course in th^t school and "a course of experimental lectures 
on the various branches of natural philosophy " in the last 
year. In addition Blair's Elements of Arts and Sciences was 
prescribed for the first year of the course. In the Girls' High 
School of Boston (established in 1826) natural philosophy 
was a prescribed study in the second year of the course. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 507 

chemistry in the third year, and botany was made an elective 
study. No natural-science study was required by law in a 
public high school until the prescription by the law of 1857 
in Massachusetts. By this law high schools in that State 
were required to give instruction in natural philosophy, 
chemistry, and botany. In addition all high schools in towns 
of four thousand inhabitants or over were required by that 
law to provide instruction in astronomy and geology. Such 
provisions remained in the statutes of Massachusetts until 
1898 when all natural-science subjects were made permis- 
sive. Interest in the study of the natural sciences developed 
faster than the public high schools. Thus in 1840 (when 
there were less than eighteen high schools in the State) 170 
towns in Massachusetts claimed to provide instruction in 
natural philosophy, 58 to provide instruction in astronomy, 
and 57 to provide instruction in chemistry. 

The entrance of natural sciences into the program of 
studies of the public secondary school was in answer to the 
interest in and the development of the natural sciences dur- 
ing the first half of the nineteenth century. It must be 
noted, however, that they were for the most part taught as 
informational subjects and with little reference to their logical 
organization as sciences in the technical sense of that term. 
During the early period laboratory work was all but unknown 
and little applied work was done except in experiments by 
the teacher. With the possible exception of requirements 
for certain courses in such colleges as the Lawrence Scientific 
School at Harvard, the earliest recognition of a natural 
science for college entrance was that of physical geography 
at Harvard and Michigan in 1870. Natural philosophy was 
first recognized for college entrance at Syracuse University 
in 1873 and in 1876 entrance examinations were conducted 
at Harvard in elementary botany, the rudiments of physics, 
chemistry, and descriptive astronomy. Laboratory worl^ 



508 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

as a part of the study of natural science accepted for admis- 
sion to college was first inaugurated at Harvard in 1887. 

The study of the natural sciences during the second half 
of the nineteenth century spread to almost all fields, so that, 
during the last quarter of the century, numerous natural- 
science subjects were found in different high schools and 
practices were widely variable. Hence, in 1892-93 the Com- 
mittee of Ten attempted to organize and standardize the 
secondary-school work in the natural sciences. For the four 
years of high-school work in the natural sciences it sug- 
gested the following program. 



Table CXXX * 





Grade 


Number of periods per week and proportion of time 
recommended 


Subject 


English 
course 


Latin 

scientific 

course 


Modern 

language 

course 


Classical ; 
course ] 




Pe- 
riods 

per 
loeek 


Per 
cent 

?f 
time 


Pe- 
riods 
per 
week 


Per 

cent 

of 

time 


Pe- 
riods 

per 
week 


Per 

cent 

of 

time 


Pe- 
riods 

per 
week 


Per 

cent 

?f 
time 


Pbysical geography. 
Physics 


I 

II 

II 

III) 

?!' 

IV, 
IV) 


3 
3 
3 
(1.5 
( 1.5 
3 

(1.5 


15.0 
15.0 
15.0 
7.5 
7.5 
16.0 

7.5 

7.5 


3 
3 
3 
1.5 
1.5 
3 

1.5 

1.5 


15.0 
15.0 
15.0 

7.6 

7.6 

16.0 

7.6 

7.6 


3 
3 
3 
1.5 
1.5 
3 

1.6 

1.5 


15.0 
15.0 
15.0 
7.5 
7.5 
15.0 

7.6 

7.5 


3 
3 



3 






15.0 
15.0 


Botany or zoology . . 

Astronomy 

Meteorology 

Chemistry 

Geology or physiog- 
raphy 


0.0 

0.0 

0.0 

15.0 

0.0 


Anatomy, physiol- 
ogy, hygiene 


0.0 


Total natural 
science 


I-W 


18 


22.6 


18 


22.6 


18 


22.5 


9 


11.3 



* Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary School Studies, pp. 46-47 (Bureau of Education 
edition). Compilation and arrangement by the author. 

The recommendation of the Committee accomplished 
much to organize the work in the natural sciences in the 
secondary school: (1) it tended to standardize the sciences 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 509 

to be studied; (2) it tended to standardize the order in which 
the sciences should be studied; (3) it gave great impetus to 
the study of the natural sciences as sciences with emphasis 
on laboratory work; (4) it emphasized the study of some 
natural science by every pupil. Some results of the recom- 
mendations of that committee, however, were not so satis- 
factory: (1) the committee failed to arrange the work so as 
to meet the needs of pupils who left school before the close 
of the course; (2) its recommendations tended to organize 
the study of the natural sciences in terms of the subjects 
rather than in terms of the capacities of the pupils and their 
later needs; (3) it supported the study of several natural 
sciences which were of questionable value (in a relative 
sense) in the secondary school and which in later develop- 
ment were discarded, at least as separate subjects of study, 
e.g., astronomy, geology, meteorology; (4) it failed to recog- 
nize the need of relating the study of the natural sciences 
more directly to life, especially with reference to vocations. 

The status of the study of natural sciences from 1890 to 
1915 may be noted from the figures presented in Table 
CXIX and from its accompanying graph illustrating the 
trend of the secondary school program during those years. 
From those figures it may be seen that the study of the 
natural sciences has in some cases noticeably declined within 
the past quarter-century. It must be remembered, however, 
that applied forms of the natural sciences, not reported in 
the table referred to, have markedly increased within that 
period, e.g., agriculture, general science, etc., thus offsetting 
largely the decline (real or apparent) in the study of the 
natural sciences. 

On the whole, three periods in the development of the 
study of the natural science in the secondary school are to be 
distinguished. During the first period (about 1800 to 1870) 
the natural sciences were studied and organized largely as 



510 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

informational courses. During the second period (about 
1870 to 1900) the tendency was to organize the study of the 
natural sciences according to the demands of pure science. 
The third period (about 1900 to the present) has been char- 
acterized by attempts to organize the study of natural 
sciences in part according to their applications. This move- 
ment, however, is as yet in its formative stage. 

220. Present status. According to the latest returns 
available (1914-15) the natural sciences are studied in 
secondary schools to the extent indicated in the following 
table. 

Table CXXXI. Pupils engaged in Natural-Science' 
Studies 1914-15* 



Subjects 



Physical geog- 
raphy 

Physics 

Physiology .... 

Botany 

Chemistry. . . . 
General biology 

Zoology 

Geology 

Astronomy .... 



Public schools 



169,911 

165,854 

110,541 

106,520 

86,031 

80,403 

37,456 

5,558 

3,224 



14.58% 

14.23 

9.48 

9.14 

7.38 

6.90 

3.21 

.48 

.28 



Private schools 



19,318 

18,572 

17,802 

11,673 

12,485 

4,936 

4,437 

2,032 

2,543 



15.37% 

14.78 

14.16 

9.29 

9.93 

3.93* 

3.53 

1.62 

2.02 



AU schools 



189,229 

184,426 

128,343 

118,193 

98,516 

85,339 

41,893 

7,590 

5,767 



14.66% 
14.28 
9.94 
9.15 
7.63 . 
6.61 ' 
3.24 
.59 
.45 ■ 



* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. u, pp. 487-89. 

In the interpretation of these figures it may be noted: 
(1) that certain sciences once popular (astronomy and geol- 
ogy) have almost disappeared from the programs of the 
public secondary schools; (2) that the relatively large num- 
ber of pupils engaged in the study of physical geography is 
in part explained by the fact that it is commonly taught in 
the first year of the high school where about forty per cent 
of all pupils are enrolled; (3) that botany, zoology, and 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 511 

physiology are frequently combined in one course of " biol- 
ogy," a fact which in part explains the relatively large num- 
bers of pupils enrolled in those studies; (4) that the relatively 
large enrollment in physiology is in part explained by the 
fact that its study is a common form of legal prescription 
demanded by "temperance" reformers and its teaching 
or popularity is frequently more apparent than real; (5) 
general science courses and special forms of applied-science 
courses are not reported. An increasingly large number of 
pupils is being enrolled in courses in " general science," 
agricultural science, domestic science, etc. In so far as there 
may properly be said to be a usual course covering the four 
years of high-school work in the natural sciences it appears 
to be as follows : — 

First year: Physical geography or general science; 
Second year: Biology, or biological sciences of some sort; 
Third year: Physics; 
Fourth year: Chemistry. 

Rarely more than one unit of science is required of all 
pupils and the proportion of pupils who study natural sci- 
ence for four full years is almost negligible. 

Table CXXXII * 



Entire course VI-0 I 



Total 

periods -per 

week 



Per cent 
of time 



Last four years 
U II-OI 



Total 

periods per 

week 



Per cent 
of time 



Gymnasium. . . . 
Realgymnasimn 
Oberrealschule. . 



18 
29 
36 



5.9 

9.4 
11.7 



8 
19 

24 



5.7 
13.3 
16.8 



* Cf. Tables LXXXIV-LXXXVII. 



51^ PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

In Prussia the study of natural science is required of all 
pupils throughout the entire course of the higher schools 
for boys. The amount of time devoted to such study is indi- 
cated in Table CXXXII. During the earlier years are 
studied the biological sciences, corresponding roughly to 
"nature study." During the latter grades mineralogy, 
physics, and chemistry are studied. 

In French secondary schools for boys are taught zoology, 
botany, geology, physics, chemistry, cosmography, anatomy 
and physiology, paleontology, hygiene. Not all pupils, 
however, study all those subjects. The general order of 
natural-science studies in the French secondary schools for 
boys may be seen from the following table. 

Table CXXXIII. Pekiods per Week devoted to Natural 
Science in the French Secondary Schools for Boys * 



Grades . . , 
Divisions 



First cycle 




V 

1 
1 



IV 

1 

2.5 



Second cycle 



II 

A 
B 
C 4.5 
D 4.5 



P-M 
r A 7.5-9 



B 7.5-9 



* Cf. Table CIV. 



From this table it may be seen that it is possible for many 
boys to pass through the secondary school in France without 
any serious study of natural science, since the science offered 
in the first cycle is largely an informational subject without 
laboratory work. On the other hand, it is possible for boys 
to receive intensive instruction in natural science in the 
second cycle. 

221. Values claimed for the natural sciences. Before 
considering the values claimed for the various natural sci- 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 513 

ences as subjects of study in the secondary -school program 
it is well to consider some of the claims made for the study of 
natural science in general. Probably the most thorough- 
going claims that have ever been made for the values of the 
study of the natural sciences are those of Spencer : — 

Thus to the question with which we set out — What knowledge 
is of most worth? — the uniform reply is — Science. This is the 
verdict on all the counts. For direct self-preservation, or the 
maintenance of life and health, the all-important knowledge is 
— Science. For that indirect self-preservation which we call gain- 
ing a livelihood, the knowledge of greatest value is — Science. 
For the due discharge of parental functions, the proper guidance 
is to be found only in — Science. For that interpretation of na- 
tional life, past and present, without which the citizen cannot 
rightly regulate his conduct, the indispensable key is — Science. 
Alike for the most perfect production and highest enjoyment of 
art in all its forms, the needful preparation is still — Science. And 
for purposes of discipline — intellectual, moral, religious — the 
most efficient study is, once more — Science. The question which 
at first seemed so perplexed, has become, in the course of our in- 
quiry, comparatively simple. We have not to estimate the degrees 
of importance of different orders of human activity, and different 
studies as severally fitting us for them; since we find that the study 
of science, in its most comprehensive meaning, is the best prepa- 
ration for all these orders of activity.^ 

According to Spencer not only is science best fitted for 
an education which is to give a knowledge of facts, but it is 
also best fitted to develop the mental ** faculties" — a con- 
clusion which he reaches by a most naive course of reasoning. 

Having found what is best for the one end, we have by implica- 
tion found what is best for the other. We may be quite sure that 
the acquirement of those acts which are most useful for regulating 
conduct, involves a mental exercise best fitted for strengthening the 
faculties. It would be utterly contrary to the economy of Nature, 
if one kind of culture were needed for the gaining of information 
and another kind were needed as a mental gymnastic. ^ 

^ Spencer, H., Education, chap, i, pp. 89-90. * Ibid., p. 79. 



514 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Yet one thing more must be added to Spencer's worship 
of "Science": 

Not only for intellectual discipline is Science the best; but also 
for moral discipline. 

The discipline of Science is superior to that of our ordinary edu- 
cation because of the religious culture that it gives. It is religious, 
too, inasmuch as it generates a profound respect for, and an im- 
plicit faith in, those uniform laws which underlie all things. By 
accumulating experiences the man of science acquires a thorough 
belief in the unchanging relations of phenomena — in the inevit- 
able connection between cause and consequence — in the necessity 
of good or evil results.^ 

These claims set up by Spencer for the values of the study 
of the natural sciences are of particular interest because they 
embody almost all the fallacies commonly employed by 
over-enthusiastic proponents of the natural sciences. Those 
fallacies deserve some special consideration. ^ 

(1) Spencer employs the term "science" in at least 
three different senses which he does not always take the 
trouble to distinguish. At times he uses the term in a gen- 
eric sense equivalent to all organized knowledge or "scien- 
tific method"; at times he uses the term with reference to 
the natural sciences in general; at times he employs the 
term referring to a special science, natural, social, or psy- 
chological. This confusion (at least for the reader) arises 
from the fact that for Spencer the social sciences are bio- 
logical and psychological, and that psychology is but one 
phase of biology. Hence, without warning he skips lightly 
from the use of the term in one sense to its use in another. 
The " word- jingle " fallacy is thus involved. 

(2) At many points Spencer's arguments involve a rather 
thorough-going theory of faculty psychology. 

1 Spencer, H., Education, pp. 84, 85, 87. 

2 Cf . the general discussion of fallacies frequently involved in the analysis 
of direct values, section 165. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 515 

(3) Attention has frequently been called to the fact that 
Spencer failed to distinguish between subject matter of 
great importance to the race and to civilization through a 
limited number of individual specialists and subject-matter 
valuable directly for all individuals — a failure to distin- 
guish between values of use, consumption, or appreciation, 
and values of technical knowledge, production, or accom- 
plishment. 

222. Spencer's fallacies perpetuated. The weaknesses 
of Spencer's claims have been pointed out repeatedly and 
the past decade or two has seen more careful analysis of the 
values of the natural sciences as subjects of study in the 
secondary school. Nevertheless writers of recent date have 
perpetuated certain of his fallacies. For example, the failure 
to distinguish between the need of scientific knowledges and 
skills on the part of some and the need of those knowledges 
and skills on the part of all is a constant error. Thus Mills : ^ 

What is Chemistry? In what way does chemistry touch the life 
of the average man? Will a knowledge of chemistry prove of bene- 
fit to the ordinary laborer, or farmer, or mechanic, or business man? 
Such questions have often been asked, and my almost invariable 
reply to the questioner is, "Name anything about you with which 
chemistry has nothing to do." It makes little difference as to the 
reply — cloth, paper, glass, wood, brick, the body itself, the food 
that we eat, and the earth upon which we walk — chemistry teaches 
of the constitution of these bodies, of the way in which they are 
made. 

Here values of use, consumption, and appreciation must be 
contrasted sharply with values of accomplishment, produc- 
tion, and technical knowledge. The former are practically 
universal : the latter are limited and contingent. 

A second fallacy is even more subtle and cannot be illus- 

* Mais, J. E., p. 183 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High-School Education, 
Quoted with the permission of the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. 



516 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

trated by any single quotation. It is found in the tendency 
by some writers to establish certain relatively universal 
values in connection with a specific natural science, e.g., 
physiology, transfer those values to science in the generic 
sense, and finally to extend those values to other sciences 
with which they are but indirectly if at all connected. Thus 
general values established in connection with biological 
sciences are frequently transferred to material sciences. 
A somewhat similar fallacy is involved when certain uni- 
versal values which may be established for specific parts of 
a science are extended to cover the entire field of that science 
as organized into a logical whole. 

The third important fallacy commonly involved in claims 
for the values of the study of natural science is found in 
dependence to an unjustifiable extent on a theory of trans- 
fer, frequently involving an obsolete theory of faculty 
psychology. In this respect the scientist has sinned even 
more than the others against whom he has so frequently 
charged error. So many direct and specifically practical 
values can be shown for the natural sciences that one would 
expect to find the advocates of the study of natural science 
sedulously avoiding the pitfalls which have enticed the advo- 
cates of subjects of less practical application. However, 
such is not the case. Thus of biology, which of all the sci- 
ence subjects least requires support from a theory of trans- 
fer values, Pearse says: 

For those who still question the value of biology, it is easy to find 
answers. From the point of view of mental training, the proper 
study of living things offers an excellent field for (1) gathering first- 
hand knowledge, (2) gaining clear ideas, (3) making concrete 
analyses, (4) using the mind for abstraction and discrimination, 
(5) seeing resemblances, (6) forming general concepts, and (7) giv- 
ing logical definitions. 

. . . Biology has a special function in training, in that it has for 
its subject-matter living organisms whose varying and uncertain 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 517 

behavior train the judgment of youth better to understand the 
behavior of men. It certainly exercises the judgment in a different 
way than do the exact sciences of physics and chemistry. ^ 

And Eliot: 

The student of natural science scrutinizes, touches, weighs, 
measures, analyzes, dissects, and watches things. By these exer- 
cises his powers of observation and judgment are trained, and he 
acquires the precious habit of observing the appearances, trans- 
formations, and processes of nature. ^ 

Or Bigelow: 

The disciplinary value of the study of zoology, as indeed of any 
other science, is found in that it may contribute to the development 
of a scientific attitude of mind, by directing various mental proc- 
esses, such as those involved in scientific observing, classifying 
facts, exercising judgment and discrimination, and learning to 
appreciate demonstrated knowledge.^ 

These fallacies must be carefully guarded against in 
attempting to analyze the values of the study of natural 
sciences in the secondary schooL 

223. Preliminary analysis of the values claimed. In an 
analysis of the values claimed for the study of the natural 
sciences in the secondary school we may consider them under 
two general heads: (1) those values which are claimed to 
arise from the direct and specific use of the facts and proc- 
esses of the natural sciences in everyday life, in various 
vocations, and in the pursuit of other studies; (2) those 
values which are claimed to arise indirectly from the study 
of the natural sciences through the development of scientific 
concepts or generalized mental functions. Either of these 
groups of values claimed may again be subdivided. Thus 
under the head of direct and specific values may be con- 

^ Pearse, A. S., p. 199 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High-School Education, 
2 Eliot, C. W., Educational Reform, p. 110. 
, * Lloyd, F. E., and Bigelow, M. A., The Teaching of Biology, p. 244. 



518 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

sidered : (a) the values of the study of the natural sciences 
as measured by the directly practical application of their 
facts, principles, and processes to those affairs of life which 
are common to all people whatever be their special activ- 
ities; (b) the values of the study of the natural sciences as 
measured by the directly practical applications of their facts, 
principles, and processes to special vocations or special 
phases of certain vocations; (c) the values of the study of 
the natural sciences as measured by the direct applications 
of their facts, principles, and processes to other studies. 
Under the head of indirect and general values may be con- 
sidered: (a) those claimed to rise from the development of 
scientific concepts such as natural law and the like; (6) those 
values claimed to arise from the transfer or spread to other 
fields of improved eflSciency gained in and through the study 
of natural sciences. In the following sections will be con- 
sidered seriatim: 

(1) Direct and specific values: (a) universal "practical" values; 
(b) specific vocational values; (c) direct propaedeutic values. 

(2) Indirect and general values: (a) conceptual values; (b) general 
transfer values. 

224. Natural science in the affairs of everyday life. The 
values of scientific information and skill are so readily 
recognized in terms of their applications to the affairs of 
everyday life that one is easily led into one or all of three 
common fallacies which were outlined at some length in 
Chapter XI: ^ (1) the fallacy of estimating values of the 
study of natural science (especially of inorganic science) 
in terms of the important part played by natural science in 
modern life and the failure to recognize that the great con- 
tributions of science must come to the race through a rela- 
tively small number of specialists; (2) the fallacy of failing 

1 Section 165. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 519 

to recognize the difference between values of utilization, 
consumption, or appreciation and values of technical knowl- 
edge, accomplishment, and production; (3) the fallacy of 
failing to recognize that the same direct values do not attach 
to any science as a logically organized whole or to all parts 
of a single science, which properly attach to some parts of 
that science. The result of employing such fallacies is a 
failure to distinguish between universal and limited or con- 
tingent direct values, with a consequent tendency to over- 
emphasize universal values of a direct character. The dis- 
cussion of these fallacies in Chapter XI renders unnecessary 
further consideration here. 

When we interpret the direct values of the study of nat- 
ural sciences in terms of the need of their facts, principles, 
and processes in the activities of the average individual we 
find some measure of the relative values of the several 
natural sciences and of the relative importance of various 
parts of the special sciences. Thus, doubtless, interpreted 
in such terms, certain biological sciences (e.g., physiology 
and hygiene) should be assigned relatively greater direct 
value than certain inorganic sciences (e.g., physics), since all 
individuals, being biological organisms, should have some 
knowledge of biological facts, principles, and processes if 
health is to be conserved. Likewise, interpreting values in 
such terms we should not hesitate to recognize that certain 
facts, principles, and processes of physics or chemistry have 
far greater direct value than others. From the standpoint 
of direct values for most people in the affairs of ordinary 
life the study of natural sciences must be considered in 
terms of their utilization, consumption, and appreciation. 
Such values are practically universal but emphasize special 
elements only in the study of the sciences. For the natural 
sciences organized into logically constituted wholes no uni- 
versal direct values can be claimed for most people in the 



520 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ordinary affairs of life. It is, of course, recognized that for 
numerous affairs in which different groups of individuals 
actively participate the contingent values of the study of 
certain natural sciences are high. This, however, involves 
the training of special groups rather than all pupils in the 
secondary school. 

225. Direct values for vocations. The direct and specific 
applications of the facts, principles, and processes of various 
natural sciences to special vocations are so obvious that 
they require little more than mention in the present discus- 
sion. The extended applications of science to manufacture 
and agriculture within recent years have placed greater and 
greater emphasis on the vocational values of the study of 
natural science in the secondary school. Little need be said 
here otherwise than to note that we are dealing in this con- 
nection with limited values in the sense that they are to be 
determined with reference to special groups and with con- 
tingent values in the sense that they are to be estimated 
according to the likelihood that various scientific facts, 
principles, and processes will "function" in the several voca- 
tions which secondary-school pupils will enter. In this con- 
nection we must remember that the increased application of 
natural science to manufacture and agriculture has been 
paralleled by a tendency toward greater specialization of 
labor, so that, while the applications of natural science in 
those fields have grown more important and more numer- 
ous, a grasp of the facts, principles, and particularly the 
processes of natural science is demanded by laboratory 
specialists only. In any industry the specialists furnish the 
scientific knowledges and skills while the workers in general 
merely follow standardized directions. This is true to a far 
greater extent in manufacture than in agriculture where 
independent workers are more numerous. Even in agricul- 
ture, however, — where, it is to be noted, the organic sci- 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 521 

ences are the more important, — what is needed is largely a 
scientific intelligence to utilize information supplied by the 
specialist. 

226. Propaedeutic values. Direct propaedeutic values of 
the study of natural science are obvious for those who are 
destined to pursue their scientific studies along advanced 
lines. This is, of course, particularly true for those who are 
destined to enter higher forms of technological, agricul- 
tural, medical, or other scientific pursuits. Such groups of 
pupils are relatively small though important. Here, again, 
the values found must be considered limited and contin- 
gent. 

227. Conceptual values claimed. For lack of a more con- 
venient term the term "conceptual" is here applied to those 
values of the study of natural science which are claimed to 
arise from the development of such broad concepts as the 
unity of phenomenal nature, the interrelation of natural and 
social phenomena, natural law, standards of naturalism and 
super-naturalism of reality and superstition, ideals of order 
and system in nature, cause and effect relations in the world 
of nature, biological evolution, etc. Any real understanding 
of modern life and thought is impossible without some under- 
standing of those comprehensive concepts which have devel- 
oped for the most part through the study of natural science. 
It is not to be conceived that the development and use of 
such concepts are solely the prerogatives of the philosopher 
or highly trained scientist. In science the instrument was 
created by which man can be freed from the bondage of 
superstition. The world has been freed from the shackles 
of necromancy, alchemy, witchcraft, astrology, animism, 
and numerous other errors of understanding through a 
knowledge and use of natural science. It requires, however, 
but little observation and imagination to recognize that just 
as serious errors enslave the thought and action of man at 



522 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the present day and that large numbers of men and women 
are seriously misled through superstition and appearances. 
The point has been stated well by De Garmo: ^ 

Let us call to witness the baseless terrors arising from erroneous 
belief regarding natural causes, the needless famines, diseases, and 
devastating pestilences that have aflSicted mankind, and then the 
more lamentable perversion of noble human qualities themselves 
through blind adherence to authority, or by the injection into hu- 
man affairs of the devils generated by ignorance of natural law, 
as in witchcraft or in the Spanish inquisition, thus poisoning the 
mind with the ptomaines of its own diseased thinking. 

One must indeed be an optimist not to believe that super- 
stition and ignorance of natural causes play havoc in the 
thought and action of millions of men and women in civi- 
lized society in the present as in the past. 

228. Transfer values claimed. Advocates of the study of 
natural science, as proponents of other studies in the sec- 
ondary school, have constantly emphasized its transfer 
values. In many cases it is held that by the study of natural 
science such assumed general powers, capacities, or faculties 
of the mind as observation, discrimination, accuracy, mem- 
ory, imagination, reasoning, may be so trained as to func- 
tion with improved efficiency in non-scientific fields. In so 
far as such claims involve (as they sometimes do) a theory 
of faculty psychology they must be ruled out of court at 
once on the ground that modern psychology recognizes no 
such general and independent faculties as memory, observa- 
tion, etc. However, the abandonment of such a theory does 
not mean that certain forms of efficiency developed in and 
through the study of natural science cannot have effect on 
fields of study and situations of a non-scientific character. 
Recent attempts to analyze the transfer values claimed for 

^ De Garmo, C, Principles of Secondary Education: The StudieSy p. 55, 
Cf. White, A. D., The Warfare of Science and Theology, 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 523 

the study of natural science have to some extent avoided 
the fallacies prominent in earlier analyses.^ 

The fundamental problems involved in the transfer values 
of the study of natural science are the same as those in- 
volved in the transfer values of other studies, particularly in 
mathematics. They have already been considered at some 
length in Chapter XI. The conclusions there reached were: 
(a) that the transfer or spread of improved efficiency is 
possible; (6) that the method of transfer depends on the 
ordinary laws of dissociation; (c) that the extent of such 
transfer depends on the degree in which materials are organ- 
ized and presented so as to make conditions favorable for 
dissociation. Keeping these conclusions in mind we may 
consider their application to the question of transfer values 
in the case of natural-science study. 

No one can question that valuable mental traits (employ- 
ing that term in the generic sense) are exercised and devel- 
oped by the study of natural science. No one can doubt that 
mental traits of the same generic quality are employed 
extensively in non-scientific situations in life. Ideals and 
habits of accuracy, achievement, proof, persistency, open- 
mindedness, honesty, and the like, are very real common 
factors in the field of natural science and in other fields: 
methods of problem solving, " scientific method," etc., are 
common elements exemplified in connection with data of all 
sorts : the same human mind with its capacity for generaliza- 
tion is a common element in all intellectual enterprises. 
The materials and means for transfer are provided in the 
study of natural science. 

Subjects of study differ widely in the degree in which they 
lend themselves to organization and manipulation for pur- 

1 For example, Twiss, G. R., pp. 453-59 of Monroe, P. (Editor), The 
Principles of Secondary Education; Mann, C. R., The Teaching of Physicst 
pp. 171-96. 



524 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

poses of fostering conditions favorable to the processes of 
dissociation. Among those subjects whose materials may 
readily be manipulated for this purpose the natural sciences 
occupy a prominent position along with mathematics. The 
degree of transfer values to be achieved through the study 
of natural science must depend on the organization of ma- 
terials and the methods employed. When a science is organ- 
ized and taught with emphasis on direct values alone or 
primarily the minimum of transfer values is to be expected. 
Transfer values are always potential and their achievement 
is not always automatic. The maximum of transfer values 
will be achieved when the materials are organized for that 
purpose and the methods of presentation purposely adapted 
to the development of those values. Direct values and indi- 
rect values cannot both be at their maximum at the same 
time and with the same organization of teaching materials 
and methods. 

The most important element of transfer values commonly 
claimed for the study of natural science comprises that 
methodology in intellectual enterprises which goes under the 
name of " scientific method." This, according to Pearson, 
is marked by (1) careful and accxu'ate classification of facts 
and observation of their correlation and sequence; (2) the 
discovery of scientific laws by aid of the creative imagina- 
tion; (3) self-criticism and the final touchstone of equal 
validity for all normally constituted minds. ^ 

The scientific method of examining facts is not peculiar to one 
class of phenomena and to one class of workers; it is applicable to 
social as well as to physical problems, and we must carefully guard 
ourselves against supposing that the scientific frame of mind is a 
peculiarity of the professional scientist. Now this frame of mind 
seems to me an essential of good citizenship, and of the several 
ways in which it can be acquired few surpass the careful study of 

* Pearson, K., The Grammar of Science, p. 37. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 525 

some one branch of natural science. The insight into method and 
the habit of dispassionate investigation which follow from acquaint- 
ance with the scientific classification of even some small range of 
natural facts, give the mind an invaluable power of dealing with 
other facts as the occasion arises.^ 

229. The values and aims of ** general science." Until 
recent years the only provision for science instruction in 
the secondary school was provision for a number of isolated 
unit courses in physics, chemistry, physiology, botany, and 
the like. Each of those courses was organized on the basis 
of the logical relations demanded by the subject-matter of 
the special science involved without reference to the psy- 
chological needs of the learner or the situations in which he 
would apply the knowledges and skills acquired in its study. 
Recently, however, there has developed the practice of 
providing a course in "general" or '* elementary" science. 
Several considerations have led to the development of such 
a course. Among these the most important are the following: 

(1) There is need for a course ia natural science which is 
elementary and introductory. The study of natural science 
in the school differs from some of the studies with which it is 
grouped ia the secondary school in that its development in 
various fields has led to more or less isolated studies which 
have no elementary or introductory study as compared with 
mathematics, the language studies, or even the social stud- 
ies. There are elementary or introductory courses in bot- 
any, physical geography, physics, biology, and chemistry, 
but no real introductory course in natural science which 
may serve either to give a general view of natural phenomena 
or as a diagnostic factor for later scientific study. 

(2) The present organization of natural-science studies 
makes it practically impossible for the pupil to come into 
any contact with certain fields of science unless he remains 

^ Pearson, JL., The Grammar of Science, pp. 6-7. 



526 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

in school throughout the course. The pupil who leaves school 
at the close of the elementary school as at present organized 
has opportunity to come into contact with such elements of 
nature study and physiology only as are provided in the 
elementary school. The pupil who leaves school before the 
last two years of high-school work cannot under ordinary 
circumstances come into any contact with physics and chem- 
istry. Further, the pupil who remains in school throughout 
the secondary course has no opportunity to study physics 
or chemistry except as an intensive subject. It is a case of 
all or nothing in any field of natural science. 

(3) In earlier days the natural sciences were taught in the 
secondary school largely as informational subjects so that 
the pupil was provided an opportunity to learn something 
concerning natural phenomena without elaborate technical 
work in the laboratory. Beyond doubt certain values of the 
study of natural sciences were greatly increased by the 
introduction of laboratory work. The change was not, how- 
ever, an unconditioned gain, as may be observed from the 
diminished interest in the study of physics and chemistry 
since instruction in those sciences was made to involve labo- 
ratory work by pupils in the secondary school. The informa- 
tional courses previously provided were very attractive to 
secondary-school pupils. The laboratory courses now pro- 
vided have proved unattractive.^ Two remedies suggest 
themselves, (a) A course in general science not overbur- 
dened by insistence on technical laboratory work may pro- 
vide science study for those who will not become special- 
ists and for some may awaken such an interest in science 
study as to lead to more intensive study in later science 
courses. (6) It is a tenable thesis that better results for the 
total pupil body would be secured if the courses in physics 

1 Cf. Table CXIX and Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, 
p. 231. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 527 

and chemistry were so organized that laboratory work be 
provided for those needing that work for extended study or 
college admission and for those sufficiently interested in that 
side of science work, but also that pupils be allowed to study 
physics and chemistry without necessarily engaging in 
laboratory work, at least to the extent at present required. 

(4) There is need for a course in natural science not 
restricted in its scope to a single field organized as a logical 
and exclusive unit, but touching many fields at those points 
where an acquaintance with the phenomena of nature is 
valuable directly to the individual. In a preceding section 
it was pointed out that the direct values of the study of the 
natural sciences, particularly of the inorganic sciences, as 
logically organized wholes are limited and contingent. 
While this is true of those sciences as units it does not hold 
true of certain facts, principles, and processes which form 
parts of the several sciences. Some of the facts, principles, 
and processes of the various natural sciences are valuable 
for practically all pupils directly. It is an essential principle 
underlying the organization of a course in general science 
that the inclusion and organization of the subject-matter 
shall be determined (a) by the demands of the learning proc- 
ess peculiar to pupils of the appropriate stage of develop- 
ment, (6) by the importance of the various facts, principles, 
and processes of the several sciences to the average individ- 
ual in the ordinary activities of life as engaged in by all. 

If the needs implied in the above are to be realized it is 
clear that the coiu-se or courses in general science should 
be begun rather early in the secondary school, preceded by 
some contact with the phenomena of nature in the element- 
ary school. In all probability the proper place for courses 
in general science is in the junior high school. In the senior 
high school may then follow such intensive courses in such 
special fields as biology, physics, and chemistry, organized 



528 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

as logical wholes. A course in general science properly organ- 
ized in the junior high school should lead some pupils to 
greater interest in the natural sciences in the senior high 
school. 

230. The aims of natural science instruction. The aims 
of instruction in natural science in the secondary school 
should be the development of values previously outlined. 
In specific terms they may be considered in the following: 

(1) General science: The aims of instruction in general 
science are to provide opportunity for acquaintance by the 
pupils with the facts, principles, and processes of natural 
phenomena in such a way as to furnish them with some 
means of understanding the elementary laws of nature which 
are necessary for healthy, intelligent, and efficient living. 
At some length the guiding principles have been well stated 
by Snedden: ^ 

1. The primary purpose of general science instruction for 
youths from twelve to sixteen years of age should be to eluci- 
date, to explain, and to interpret, in degree appropriate to 
the youth and modest demands of these learners, and by 
means of genuine and vivid experience, the important facts 
and simple principles of accessible natural phenomena and of 
significant and easily comprehended applications of science 
to human well-being. 

2. Secondary purposes, which are to be definitely subordinated 
in teaching processes, and to be realized, if at all, only as by- 
products, are: (a) The intellectual grasp of underlying prin- 
ciples and laws; (6) the mastery, as working ideal and specific 
habit (as opposed to appreciation and intellectual compre- 
hension) of any department of scientific method; and (c) the 
mastery for use in a practical or vocational sense (as distin- 
guished from development of appreciation) of scientific 
knowledge or technique. 

3. The scope or range of natural phenomena and cases of applied 
science to be included in a program of general science instruc- 

* Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, pp. 255-62. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 529 

tion should be great — theoretically as great as all the avail- 
able resources of human knowledge, and limited only by the 
capacity of the learner and the accessibility of the materials. 

4. The whole program of general science instruction must be 
very extensive, to the end that from the standpoint of any one 
school or teacher or grade or pupil it may be almost indefi- 
nitely flexible. 

5. ... in the present state of educational knowledge it is un- 
wise, harmful, and even impertinent for educational theorists 
to delimit particular divisions of general science, or principles 
or topics therein, as being of relatively superior importance. 

6. It is indispensable, once the aims of general science teaching 
are acceptably formulated, that the wealth of materials avail- 
able should be organized into suitable teaching units, each unit 
presupposing a fair assignment of time, method of attack, and 
result to be mastered. 

7. Qualitatively, instruction in general science must not aim at 
exhaustiveness of knowledge, mastery of abstract principle or 
formula, capacity for detailed expression, or power to make 
definite application. 

{2) Other sciences : The special natural sciences provided 
in the senior high school should aim at intensive study of 
those subjects as logically organized studies by those pupils 
only who manifest special interest, special ability, or voca- 
tional need. The specific aims must be determined by the 
values previously considered. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Analyze the activities of the home which call for natural-science 
knowledge and analyze the knowledges called for. 

2. Analyze the knowledge of natural science valuable for the skilled 
worker in metal industries. 

3. What knowledge of natural science is of value to the carpenter? 

4. What knowledge of electricity is necessary for the average man or 
woman? — for the average factory worker? — for a man engaged in 
electric wiring, etc.? 

5. What knowledge of chemistry is suitable for the ordinary farmer? — 
for the housekeeper? — for the pharmacist? 



530 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

6. What are the arguments for and against providmg a course in chemistry 
or physics without laboratory work, assuming that laboratory work is 
still provided for special groups of pupils? 

7. Outline arguments for and against an introductory course in "general'* 
science to be taken by all pupils. 

8. Examine and criticize claims made by various writers for the study of 
any given natural science in the secondary school. 

9. In any secondary-school textbook in chemistry analyze the relative 
importance attached to various phases of the subject. How would you 
rearrange and reapportion the material for a class of pupils who will 
not study chemistry further? Do the same for physics or biology. 

10. Make a list of scientific concepts which you believe every secondary- 
school graduate should have acquired. 

11. Outline definitely transfer values which you believe may be found in 
the study of any given natural science. 

12. Criticize Spencer's arguments for the values of the study of science. 
(Cf. Spencer, H., Education, chapter i.) 

13. Criticize Huxley's discussion of the values of science study. (Cf. 
Huxley, T., Science and Education, chaps, iv-vi.) 

14. In any high school make a study of the amount of natural science 
study engaged in by members of several "classes" in their high-school 
courses. 

15. For any college make a study of the units of natural science study pre- 
sented by candidates for admission to college. 

16. Compare the relative values of "pure" and "applied" science. 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

General: 

Barber, F. D., "Fundamental Considerations in the Reorganization 
of High-School Science," School Review, vol. xxiv, pp. 124-34. 

Coulter, J. G., "Proposed Status of Science Instruction in the 
Junior-Senior High School organization," Educational Administra- 
tion and Supervision, vol. i, pp. 639-45. 

Eliot, C. W., Changes Needed in American Secondary Education, 
Occasional Papers no. 2, Publications of the General Education 
Board. 

Huxley, T., Science and Education, especially chaps, rv-vi. 

Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, chap. xiv. 

Pearson, K., Grammar of Science. 

Spencer, H., Education, chap. i. 

Twiss, G. R., chap, xii of Monroe, P. (Editor), Principles of Second- 
ary Education. 

Twiss, G. R., A Textbook of the Principles of Science Teaching. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 531 

II. Biological sciences: 

Caldwell, O. W. (Chairman), "A Consideration of the Principles 

that should determine the Com-ses in Biology in Secondary 

Schools," Report of a Committee, School Science and Mathematics^ 

vol. IX, pp. 241-47. 
Caldwell, O. W., Galloway, T. W., and Norris, H. W., "An Inves- 
tigation of the Teaching of Biological Subjects in Secondary 

Schools," School Science and Mathematics, vol. rx, pp. 581-97. 
Coulter, J. M., "Botany as a Factor in Education," School Review, 

vol. xn, pp. 60^17. 
Forbes, S. A., "Economic and Industrial Aspects of Secondary 

School Biology," School Science and Mathematics, vol. v, pp. 173- 

83. 
Forbes, S. A., "The Pedagogical Value of Zoology," Educational 

Review, vol. i, pp. 328-36. 
Hunter, G. W., "The Methods, Content, and Purpose of Biologic 

Science in the Secondary Schools of the United States," School 

Science and Mathematics, vol. x, pp. 1-10, 103-11. 
Linville, H. R., "Old and New Ideals in Biology Teaching," School 

Science and Mathematics, vol. x, pp. 210-16. 
Linville, H. R., et al., "The Practical Use of Biology," School Science 

and Mathematics, vol. ix, pp. 121-30. 
Lloyd, F. E., and Bigelow, M. A., The Teaching of Biology in the 

Secondary School, pp. 7-24, 62-80, 241-60. 
National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganization 

of Secondary Education, Report of Committee on Biology, School 

Science and Mathematics, vol. xvi, pp. 501-17. 
Snedden, D., Frohlems of Secondary Education, chap. xx. 

III. Chemistry: 

Allen, J. H., "The Value of Chemistry as a High-School Subject,** 
School Science and Mathematics, vol. x, pp. 721-31, 788-800 
(Nov.-Dec, 1910). 

Blanchard, A. A., "Elementary Chemistry as a Means of Develop- 
ing the Power of Independent Scientific Reasoning," School Sci- 
ence and Mathematics, vol. x, pp. 382-87 (May, 1910). 

Dennis, L. M., et al., "WTiat Kind of Chemistry Shall be Taught 
in the High School and How Shall it be Most Effectively 
Taught? " Proceedings of the New York State Associated Principals 
(1902), pp. 439-54. 

Geer, W. C, "The Teaching of Chemistry in the Secondary Schools: 
A Study of Recent Practice and Results," School Review, vol. xiv, 
pp. 275-95. 

Morgan, W. C, "What Should Science Contribute to General 
Education?" School Science and Mathematics, vol. viii, pp. 1-9. 



522 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Smith, A., and Hall, E. H., The Teaching of Chemistry and Physics 
in the Secondary Schools, pp. 5-48. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xix. 

Symposium on High School Chemistry, "The Purpose and Organi- 
zation of Chemistry Teaching in Secondary Schools," a series of 
papers in School Science and Mathematics, vols, ix and x, espe- 
cially vol. rx, pp. 658-65, vol. x, pp. 18-21. 

Wade, F. B., "The Purpose and Method of the Chemistry Course 
in the Public High School" School Science and Mathematics 
(April, 1910), pp. 299-303. 

IV. Geography: 

Chamberlain, J. F. (Chairman), Report of the Committee on Second- 
ary School Geography, Proceedings of the National Education Asso- 
ciation (1909), pp. 820-28. 

Dodge, R. E., "Geography for Secondary Schools," Journal of 
Geography, vol. vi, pp. 241-54, 273-75. 

Hubbard, G. D., "Geography in the Secondary School," Proceedings 
of the National Education Association (1908), pp. 978-84. 
V. Physics: 

Avery, L. B., et al.. Symposium on the "Purpose and Organization 
of Physics Teaching in Secondary Schools," a series of papers 
in vols. VIII and ix of School Science and Mathematics. 

Guthe, K. E., "Some Reforms Needed in the Teaching of Physics," 
Science, vol. xxxi, pp. 1^. 

Hall, E. H., Part ii of Smith, A., and Hall, E. H., The Teaching of 
Chemistry and Physics in the Secondary School. 

Mann, C. R., The Teaching of Physics, pp. 170-96. 

Mann, C. R., "The Aims and Tendencies in Physics Teaching," 
School Science and Mathematics, vol. vi, pp. 723-30. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xix. 

Spaulding, F. B., "The Culture Aim in Physics Teaching," School 
Science and Mathematics, vol. x, pp. 14-17. 

Spaulding, F. B., " What Knowledge (of Physics) is of Most Worth? " 
School Science and Mathematics, vol. viii, pp. 674-79. 

VI. General Science: 

Barber, F. D., "The Present Status and Real Meaning of General 
Science," School Review, vol. xxiii, pp. 9-24. 

Briggs, T. H., "General Science in Secondary Schools," Teachers 
College Record, vol. xvii, pp. 19 ff. 

Coulter, J. G., "Present Tendencies in Teaching Elementary 
Science," Educational Review, vol. lii, pp. 357-71. 

Eikenberry, W. L., "Some Facts about the General Science Situ- 
ation," School Review, vol. xxiii, pp. 181-91. 

General Science Quarterly. 



THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES 533 

Massachusetts State Committee on General Science, General Science 
Bulletin, Preliminary Draft, General Science Quarterly, vol. I, 
pp. 37^6, 88-101, 180-88, 228-32. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, Report of Committee on Science, 
Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

Quickstad, N. J., " Some Phases of the General Science Problem,'* 
General Science Quarterly, vol. i, pp. 153-61. 

Roecker, W. F., "An Elementary Course in General Science: Con- 
tent and Method," School Science and Mathematics, vol. xiv, pp. 
755-69. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xxi. 

School Review, vol. xxv, pp. 453-60, "Review of Current Literature 
on General Science." (Summarizes aims, argmnents for and 
against, etc.) 

Webb, H. A., "A Quantitative Analysis of General Science," 
School Science and Mathematics, vol. xvn, pp. 534-45. 

Extended bibliography: Bibliography of Science Teaching, Bureau 
of Education, Bulletin (1911), no. 1. "Bibliography of General 
Science," General Science Quarterly, vol. i, pp. 146-52. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN THE PROGEAM 

;0F STUDIES 

231. Historical position in the program. While much 
ancient history, chronology, geography, and mythology was 
doubtless taught in connection with the classical study of 
the Latin grammar school, no social science as such was 
studied in America until the beginning of the academy move- 
ment. In the middle of the eighteenth century Franklin 
recommended the extensive study of history and geography 
in the academy which he proposed and which was founded 
at that time. By the beginning of the nineteenth century 
those studies had attained some prominence in the acade- 
mies and by the beginning of the high-school movement 
in the third decade of the nineteenth century history and 
geography had attained a permanent position in the pro- 
gram of the American secondary school. 

By the Massachusetts law of 1827, which marked the 
real beginning of the public high school, geography was 
prescribed for elementary schools. United States history 
for all high schools, and "history" (other than that of the 
United States) for all high schools in larger cities. Stimu- 
lated by the academy movement and by such influences as 
the Massachusetts law above mentioned the study of geogra- 
phy and history developed even more rapidly than the pub- 
lic high schools themselves. Thus, in Massachusetts, where 
there were not more than a dozen high schools at the time, 
out of 294 towns reporting in 1837 to the State Department, 
209 towns claimed to offer United States history in their 
schools and 94 towns claimed to offer other forms of history. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 535 

Likewise in 1838-39 "political science" was a subject 
claimed to be offered in 29 towns. In 1842 Horace Mann 
reported that 10,177 pupils in Massachusetts were engaged 
in the study of United States history and 2571 were engaged 
in the study of "general history." Equally noticeable was 
the development of courses in history in the academies of 
New York State. ^ 

By the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth 
century the study of geography had been relegated for the 
most part to the elementary school, the study of history in 
many forms had found a permanent place in the program of 
the public high school, colleges had begun to prescribe his- 
tory as a requirement for admission (Harvard and Michi- 
gan in 1847), and in some high schools "political science" 
or "political economy" had appeared in the program, "polit- 
ical philosophy" having appeared in the program of the 
Boston English Classical (High) School in 1821. During 
the latter half of the nineteenth century the study of history, 
and to a much less extent of other social sciences, continued 
to develop. The development of the social sciences in the 
secondary school from 1890 to the present has already been 
indicated in Table CXIX. 

In 1893 the Committee of Ten on Secondary School 
Studies recommended the study of history for aU pupils 
during the first year of high-school work and at other 
points in the course, the time being distributed as shown 
in Table CXXXIV. 

Such an assignment of time and arrangement of courses 
did not, however, meet the recommendations of the sub- 
committee on "history, civil government, and political 
economy," which provided for an eight-year or a six-year 
course in social studies as in Table CXXXV. 

1 Russell, W. F., "The Entrance of History into the Curriculum of the 
Secondary School," The History Teacher's Magazine, vol. v, pp. 313 jf. 



536 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table CXXXIV * 





High- 
school 
grade 


Classical 
course 


Latin- 
scientific 
course 


Modern 

language 

course 


English 
course 


Number 

of 
Periods 
per week 


r I 

J II 
"5 III 

. IV 


4 

3 


3 (elective) 


4 



2 

3 (elective) 


4 


2 

3 (elective) 


4 
3 
3 
3 


Total 

Per cent total 
time 




7 or 10 
8.4 or 12.6 


6 or 9 
7.5orll.3 


6 or 9 
7.5 or 11.3 


13 
16.25 







* Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary School Studies (Bureau of Education edition), 
pp. 46-47. 



Table CXXXV* 



Grade 


Eight-year course 


Six-year course 


5 


Biography and mythology. 

Biography and mythology. 

American history and elements 
of civil government. 

Greek and Roman history with 
their Oriental connections. 

French history. (To be so taught 
as to elucidate the general 
movement of mediaeval and 
modern history.) 

English history. (To be so 
taught as to elucidate the 
general movement of medi- 
aeval and modern history.) 

American history. 

A special period, studied in an 
intensive manner; and civil 
government. 




6 




7 
8 
I 

II 

III 

IV 


Biography and mythology. 

Biography and mythology. 

American history, and civil gov- 
ernment. 

Greek and Roman history, with 
their Oriental connections. 

English history. (To be so 
taught as to elucidate the 
general movement of medi- 
aeval and modern history.) 

American history and civil gov- 
ernment. 



* Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary School Studies (Bureau of Education edition), 
pp. 163-64. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 537 

The same sub-committee recommended : ^ 

That formal instruction in political economy be omitted from 
the school program; but that economic subjects be treated in 
connection with other pertinent subjects. . . . That to Ameri- 
can history in the first group of studies be added the elements 
of civil government. 

Neither the report of the Committee of Ten nor the report 
of its sub-committee on the social sciences succeeded in 
creating a desirable amount of order out of the chaos which 
had previously existed in the study of the social sciences: 
hence in 1896 a committee was appointed by the American 
Historical Association "to consider the subject of history in 
the secondary schools and to draw up a scheme of college 
entrance requirements in history." That committee made 
a survey of the current practices in the teaching of history 
in about 260 representative secondary schools in the 
country. It reported in 1898; 

The subjects in the order of their frequency are: (1) English and 
American history, taught in more than half the schools; (2) "Gen- 
eral history," taught in almost exactly half the schools; (3) Greek 
and Roman history, taught in about half the schools; (4) Euro- 
pean history taught in about one third of the schools, the three 
forms — mediaeval, modern, and French history — being about 
equally common. In a very few schools the history of the state in 
which they are situated is a subject. The favorite topics are, there- 
fore, English and American history, usually both taught in the 
same school; Greek and Roman history, usually both taught in the 
same school; and some form of what is conmionly called "general 
history." ^ 

... In general four different systems (of the order of subjects) 
have been followed: (1) About one third of the schools follow the 

1 Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary School Studies (Bureau of 
Education), pp. 162-63. 

2 Committee of Seven, The Study of History in Schools (The Macmillan 
Company print), p. 139. 



538 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

clironological method, taking up in succession ancient history, 
general history, and modern history in some form, usually English 
or American or both; ... (2) A much smaller mmiber of schools, 
perhaps a seventh of the whole, prefer the order — general, ancient, 
and modern; ... (3) The third method begins with American, or 
sometimes with English history, and then takes general history, 
bringing in ancient history last. About one fifth of the schools 
reporting use this system; ... (4) A fourth method, which pre- 
vails in more than a quarter of the schools, is that of beginning with 
American history, foUowing with ancient history and ending with a 
general course; ... To make the generalization in broader form: 
the returns from a body of schools most interested in the subject of 
history show that one half prefer to begin high-school work with 
the history nearest to the pupUs in experience, and then to take up 
wider choices, while one third have the chronological system, and 
the remainder begin with the general survey of the field. ^ 

The same committee recommended a fom:-years' high- 
school com*se as follows: ^ 

As a thorough and systematic course of study, we recommend 
four years of work, beginning with ancient history and ending with 
American history. For these four years we propose the division of 
the general field into four blocks or periods, and recommend that 
they be studied in the order in which they are here set down, which 
in large measure accords with the natural order of events, and 
shows the sequence of historical facts. 

(1) Ancient history, with special reference to Greek and Roman 
history, but including also a short introductory study of the more 
ancient nations. This period should also embrace the early Middle 
Ages, and should close with the establishment of the Holy Roman 
Empire (800) or with the death of Charlemagne (814), or with the 
treaty of Verdun (843). 

(2) Mediaeval and modern European history, from the close of 
the first period to the present time. 

(3) English history. 

(4) American history and civil government. 



1 



Committee of Seven, The Study of History in Schools (The Macmillan 
Company print), pp. 140-41. 
2 Ibid., pp. 34-35. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 5S9 

The report of this committee had a marked effect on the 
teaching of history in the high school, an effect which is 
still strongly felt. However, the Committee of Five on the 
Study of History in Secondary Schools suggested certain 
changes among which the most important were: ^ (1) the 
requirement of three years of study in history by every 
pupil; (2) changes in the content of the various "blocks"; 
(3) greater emphasis on modern history; (4) more atten- 
tion for civil government; (5) a revision of the four blocks 
as to the order of their study, suggesting the order — (A) 
Ancient history, (B) English history, (C) modern European 
history, (D) American history and government. The effect 
of the reports of the two committees (Committee of Seven 
and Committee of Five) on present-day conditions may be 
observed in Table CXXXVII. 

It may be noted in the reports of the Committee of Ten, 
the Committee of Seven, and the Committee of Five that 
social studies other than history were almost neglected. 
Throughout the history of the high school the study of civics 
has had a rather precarious existence, commonly being found 
in the form of civil government confined to somewhat formal 
study of governmental agencies and taught as an appendage 
to the study of American history. It is only within the past 
decade or so that the study of civics has begun to come to 
its own in the program of studies in the high school. Even 
more precarious has been the position of the study of econo- 
mics in the high school as may be seen from Table 
CXXXVII. 

232. Present status. In 1914 the Bureau of Education 
attempted to ascertain the status of the social sciences in 
secondary schools. Returns were received from Q^.5 per 

* Report of the Committee of Five, The Study of History in Secondary 
Schools, especially pp. 65, 24 /., 53 /., 9-11, 64. Committee appointed 
in 1907: its report published in 1911. 



540 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

cent of all the secondary schools in the United States. 
While the data received were not altogether satisfactory 
they give a fair idea of the situation as it was at that time. 
From the returns it was estimated that thirty per cent of 
the schools reporting required for graduation all of the his- 
tory they offered and thirteen per cent made history entirely 
an elective. Also the returns indicated that between 1910 
and 1914 forty-three per cent of the schools reporting 
increased their offerings, 11.5 per cent decreased their 
offerings, and the other schools reporting made no change 
in the amount offered. The figures presented in the following 
table will give a fair idea of conditions in 1914. 

Table CXXXVI. Number and Per Cent op the Schools 

WHICH reported OFFERING SEVERAL AMOUNTS OP HiSTORY 
REQUIRED AND ELECTIVE* 



Number qf koura 



None 

36-88 hours 

108-176 hours 

180-264 hours 

288-528 hours 

540-704 hours 

720-880 hours 

More than 880 hours 

Totals 



Required 


Elec 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


312 


7.0 


2,189 


234 


5.2 


185 


396 


8.8 


316 


1,042 


23.2 


639 


1,679 


37.4 


805 


674 


15.0 


724 


136 


3.0 


391 


16 


.4 


118 


4,489 


100.0 


5,367 



Per cent 



40.8 

3.4 

5.9 

11.9 

15.0 

13.6 

7.3 

2.2 

100.1 



Median amount of time for required history . . . 288-528 hours or between 1.6 and 

2.9 "units." 



* Table compiled from data given by Briggs, T. H., in Report of the United States 
Commissioner qf Education (1915), vol. ii, p. 120. Certain of Briggs's percentages required 
correction. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 



541 



Even more illustrative of the place at present held by the 
social sciences are the figures presented in Table CXXXVIL 

Table CXXXVII. Number of Schools offering Required 
AND Elective History of Various Kinds in Each High- 
School Grade * 





/ 


11 


III 


IV 


I-IV 


Grand 
























total 




Req. 


Elec. 


Beq. 


EUc. 


Req. 


Elec. 


Req. 


Elec. 


Req. 


Elee. 




Ancient history. . . 


£049 


lS2Jt 


1588 


874 


158 


123 


29 


26 


3494 


2347 


6141 


Mediaeval and 
























modern Euro- 
























pean history . . . 


195 


97 


1818 


uoi 


1000 


1059 


70 


105 


3083 


2662 


5745 


English history . . . 


337 


191 


332 


358 


1157 


17J^9 


1.33 


268 


1959 


2666 


4625 


American history . 


121 


68 


114 


51 


730 


360 


3376 


1391 


4341 


1860 


6201 


Industrial history. 


22 


77 


23 


103 


30 


138 


36 


202 


113 


520 


633 


Civics 


589 
11 


2Jt2 
11 


230 
37 


139 
60 


641 
140 


465 
469 


2397 
310 


1573 
1026 


3857 
498 


2419 
1566 


6276 


Economics 


2064 


General history. . . 


48 


9 


179 


17 


45 
3901 


12 


7 


9 


279 


47 


326 


Totals 


3372 


2009 


4291 


3003 


4375 


6360 


4600 


17924 


14087 


32011 



Number of schools reporting 7197 

Average number of courses required 2.5 

Average number of courses elective 2+ 

Number of schools requiring all history offered 2172 

Number of schools offering only elective history 983 

Number of schools offering no history 10 

* Table compiled from data given by Briggs, T. H., in Report of the United States Com- 
missioner qf Educaiion (1915), vol. n, p. 121. 

From this table a number of facts concerning the status 
of the social sciences in the secondary school may be noted : 
(1) The influence of the recommendations of the Committee 
of Seven is noticeable in the order in which the four " blocks " 
of history are studied, i.e., ancient history in the first year 
(required in seventy-four per cent of schools where any 
history is required in the first year), mediaeval and modern 
European history in the second year (required in forty- 
five per cent of schools requiring any history in the second 
year), English history in the third year (required in thirty- 
seven per cent of the schools where any history is required 



542 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

in the third year), and American history in the fourth year 
(required in ninety-five per cent of schools where any history 
is required in the fourth year); (2) "general history" has 
apparently all but disappeared from the program; (3) his- 
tory in some form is required in the first year of 38.5 per 
cent of the schools reporting, in the second year of 55.9 per 
cent of the schools, in the third year of 43.4 per cent, and in 
the fourth year of 49.4 per cent; (4) it is probable that civics 
is prescribed either in connection with American history or 
as a separate subject in more than one half the schools 
reporting and is offered as an elective subject in another 
third; (5) civics is taught as a prescribed subject in the 
fourth year of one third of the schools reporting and as an 
elective subject in the fourth year by about one quarter 
or one fifth of those schools; (6) economics has begun to find 
a place in the program of the secondary school, commonly 
in the fourth year. 

Current theory and practice in the study of civics deserves 
special attention at the present time. The Committee of 
Seven recommended that the study of "civil government" 
be made a separate subject of study in the fourth year of 
the high school wherever time permitted, and that where 
time did not permit "civil government" be taught in con- 
nection with American history. The latter method was 
generally adopted and the study of civics commonly was 
restricted to constitutional law and the machinery of Na- 
tional and State government. Within recent years consid- 
erable dissatisfaction has been manifest with the tendency 
to teach civics as an appendage to American history, to 
delay its study to the last part of the school course, and to 
restrict its content to the larger affairs of National and 
State government. Consequently a strong movement has 
begun to introduce a new kind of civics which should be 
studied earlier in the coiu'se as a separate subject, which ^ 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 543 

should find the main points of emphasis in the affairs of 
commmiity life, and have a firmer basis of immediate inter- 
est for the pupil. "Community civics" has, therefore, re- 
ceived more and more emphasis in the secondary-school 
program within the past few years and bids fair to establish 
itself. Its function and character will be considered in a 
later section. 

If we compare the position of the social sciences in the 
programs of the American and European secondary schools, 
noteworthy differences are at once evident. Thus in the 
French secondary school for boys the study of geography 
and history (for the most part combined) is f oimd in every 
grade, from the infant class to the philosophical-mathemat- 
ical form, and is required of every pupil throughout the 
coiu'se, approximately one seventh of the total time of the 
entire course being devoted to such studies and approxi- 
mately the same proportion of time being devoted to such 
studies in the last four grades. Morals and civics are taught 
in connection with history in the earlier grades and as a 
special subject one hour per week in the last two grades of 
the first cycle. 

In the Prussian higher schools for boys social studies begin 
with geography in the lower grades, that subject being com- 
bined with history later. History is begun with stories in 
connection with the study of the mother tongue, appearing 
as a separate subject in Quarta (age about 11), and contin- 
uing throughout the course as a required subject for all 
pupils. In the entire course from one eighth to one tenth of 
the total time is devoted to the study of history and geogra- 
phy , that proportion holding also for the last four grades 
of the course. Religion is required of all pupils two or three 
periods per week throughout the course. This, of course, 
functions in many ways as a social study. 

In French and in German education it may be noted: 



544 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

(1) that the study of history forms an important part of the 
secondary-school program throughout the course; (2) that 
the study of history is prescribed for every pupil; (3) that 
in Germany " religion " and in France " la morale " is studied 
as a separate subject; (4) that the social sciences given are 
closely correlated; (5) that a large part of the social studies 
is uniform for all secondary-school pupils. 

233. Character and ultimate aims. While the several 
social sciences differ in their character and in their specific 
aims as studies in the secondary school, it is worth while to 
consider the general character and ultimate aims of the 
social sciences as a unit before attempting the separate analy- 
sis of the various subjects belonging to the general field. 
In the Report of the Committee on Social Studies of the 
Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 
social studies are defined and their aims set as follows: ^ 

1. Definition of the social studies. — The social studies are under- 
stood to be those whose subject matter relates directly to the organ- 
ization and development of human society, and to man as a mem- 
ber of social groups. 

2. Aims of the social studies. — The social studies differ from other 
studies by reason of their social content rather than in social aim; 
for the keynote of modern education is "social efficiency," and in- 
struction in all subjects should contribute to this end. Yet, from 
the nature of their content, the social studies afford peculiar oppor- 
tunities for the training of the individual as a member of society. 
Whatever their value from the point of view of personal culture, 
unless they contribute directly to the cultivation of social efficiency 
on the part of the pupil they fail in their most important function. 
They should accomplish this end through the development of an 
appreciation of the nature and laws of social life, a sense of the 
responsibility of the individual as a member of social groups, and 
the intelligence and the will to participate effectively in the pro- 
motion of the social well-being. 

^ The Social Studies in Secondary Education, National Education Asso- 
ciation, Report of the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission 
on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, Bureau of Education 
Bulletin (1916), no. 28, p. 9. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 545 

In this statement of the committee a number of important 
facts are to be noted: (1) the conception that all the social 
studies may be considered from many points of view as con- 
stituting a group of studies, each differing more or less from 
every other, yet all with important common elements in- 
volving a common end — the development of social effici- 
ency; (2) emphasis is placed on the direct values of the 
studies involved; (3) the specific ends to be aimed at in 
attaining social efficiency are (a) knowledge and apprecia- 
tion of the nature and laws of social life, (6) the develop- 
ment of a sense of responsibility in the individual as a 
member of social groups, (c) the development of the in- 
telligence and habits which may lead to effective participa- 
tion in social activities. 

The recommendations of this committee noticeably in- 
volve the conception that the social studies of the secondary 
school should be organized and taught with reference to the 
activities of modern life in which the individual will engage. 
This is seen from the importance attached to modern history 
and from the important position assigned to civics and 
related studies. (Table CXXXVIII.) 

234. Values of the study of history. History as a subject 
of study in the secondary school has passed through three 
fairly definite stages and entered on its fourth stage. During 
the earliest period history was studied primarily as ancillary 
to the study of the classics. That stage was followed by a 
second period when history was studied largely as an in- 
formational subject. Later still history was studied with 
emphasis on its supposed disciplinary values. Finally his- 
tory is now studied with particular emphasis on its sociologi- 
cal values with special reference to the activities of present- 
day life as participated in by the ordinary man or woman. 
The relative emphasis given in any one period to certain 
values does not negate the existence of other values. Hence, 



546 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table CXXXVIII* 

Seventh year: 

(1) Geography — ^ year. ) These two courses may be taught 

European history — ^ year. J in sequence, or parallel through 

the year. 
Civics — taught as a phase of the above and other subjects, or 
segregated in one or two periods a week, or both. 
or (2) European history — 1 year. 

Geography — taught incidentally to, and as a factor in, the 

history. 
Civics — taught as a phase of the above and other subjects, or 
segregated in one or two periods a week, or both. 
Eighth year: 

American history — | year. \ These two courses may be taught 
Civics — ^ year. j in sequence, or parallel through 

the year. 
Ninth year: 

(1) Civics: Continuing the civics of the preceding year, but with 
more emphasis upon State, national, and world aspects — 
f year. 
Civics: Economic and vocational aspects — ^ year. 
History: Much use made of history in relation to the topics of 
the above courses, 
or (2) Civics — economic and vocational. ) 1 year, in sequence or 
Economic History. ) parallel. 

Tenth to twelfth years: 

I. European history to approximately the end of the seventeenth century 
— 1 year. This would include ancient and oriental civilization, 
English history to the end of the period mentioned, and the 
period of American colonization. 
II. European history {including English history) since approximately 
the end of the seventeenth century — 1 (or |) year. 

III. American history since the seventeenth century — 1 (or |) year. 

IV. Problems of American Democracy — 1 (or ^) year. 

* Committee on Social Studies, op. cit., pp, 15, 35. 

before attempting any detailed analysis of the values of the 
study of history, it is well to make a preliminary classifi- 
cation of the various values claimed. 

Here, as in the case of many other subjects of study we 
may classify the values claimed in two comprehensive 
groups: (I) direct and specific values; (II) indirect and gen- 
eral values. These comprehensive groups of values may 
again be sub-divided. Thus under the head of direct and 
specific values may be considered: (1) direct social-civic 



THE PLACE* OF SOCIAL SCIENCES ' 547 

values; (2) direct vocational values; (3) direct avocational 
values; (4) direct propaedeutic values. Under the head of 
indirect and general values may be considered: (1) values 
of the study of history for the development of certain general 
social concepts; (2) values of the study claimed to arise from 
the training of certain valuable mental traits and their 
transference to non-historical material/ In the following 
sections wiU be considered seriatim : 

I. Direct and specific values: 

(1) Direct social-civic values; 

(2) Direct vocational values; 

(3) Direct avocational values; 

(4) Direct propaedeutic values. 
II. Indirect and general values; 

(1) Conceptual values; 

(2) Transfer values. 

235. Direct social-civic values. History must always be 
conceived as one of the principal subjects of study operating 
toward the attainment of the social-civic aim of secondary 
education. In common with the other social sciences it 
deals directly with social phenomena as its content. It 
differs from the other social studies (except as they may as- 
sume an historical aspect) in that: (1) it deals with the 
phenomena of human activity in their actual processes, 
dynamic and genetic; (2) its field is more extensive and 
permits the contact with widely variant conditions; (3) it 
makes possible the understanding of existing conditions 
which cannot be appreciated except in terms of the past; 
(4) it allows opportunity to interpret cause and effect in 
human action where that relation cannot be seen except 
with the passage of time; (5) its study offers one of the few 
opportunities afforded in the secondary school to gain an 
understanding of other countries and other peoples. 

To conceive that the direct social-civic values of history 



548 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

are to be measured solely by the extent to which one may 
consciously employ certain facts or pieces of information 
concerning an historical event in solving a problem of the 
present is to have a very superficial view of the function of 
historical study. The direct application of Of knowledge of 
historical events to present-day problems is, of course, a 
very real result of the study of history. Much more impor- 
tant, however, than acquired knowledges in the field of history 
are the less tangible but none the less real attitudes developed 
through the study of that subject. One may have but the 
haziest remembrance of facts concerning the development 
of the American democracy after a study of American his- 
tory, but one cannot help having a changed attitude as the 
result of such study. The secondary-school pupil may for- 
get every date and name in English history after a year's 
study, but he can never again have the same attitude toward 
the English nation or any other nation that he had before 
he studied that subject. No greater mistake could be made 
in estimating the direct values of the study of history than 
to assume that such values are to be measured solely by the 
specific application to modern life of the knowledges acquired 
in such study. 

For convenience we may consider the direct social-civic 
values of the study of history (1) with reference to the more 
personal activities of the individual, (2) with reference to 
those activities of the individual which more directly affect 
united social action, and (3) with reference to social inte- 
gration. 

(i ) The personal conduct of the individual : The individual 's 
character and conduct is determined in part by the forces 
of heredity and in part by his experiences in his environ- 
ment. By far the most important part of his environment 
(from the viewpoint of formal education) is his social envi- 
ronment. The individual is affected, however, by those 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 549 

parts only of his environment with which his experiences 
bring him into contact. His direct experiences must per- 
force be greatly limited: his indirect and vicarious expe- 
riences are limited only by the experiences of man and the 
possibility of representing them to the individual's mind. 
Such vicarious experiences may be afforded through the 
fiction of literature or the faithful re-presentation of history 
and biography. The study of history, therefore, by enlarg- 
ing the field of individual experience may contribute to the 
character and conduct of the individual. That contribution 
may take the direction of stimulating ambition and ten- 
dencies to act along certain general lines or it may take the 
direction of moral education. True it is that the events of 
history illustrate human action indiscriminately moral or 
immoral. True it is also that the teaching of history cannot 
be organized solely or even primarily for purposes of moral 
education. It is even true that in some cases where the 
ethical values of the study of history have been emphasized 
the results have been unsatisfactory: e.g., the development 
of a patriotism which is vainglorious and unfair to other 
nations. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that there is a 
fundamental truth expressed by the aphorism of Terence: 
*' Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto^'; and that 
the moral training which may be secured from the study of 
history has all the advantages and all the disadvantages 
which are to be found in moral training secured from the 
study of human experiences in any field. Whether or not 
the study of history leads to the improvement of character 
is dependent on the method of such study and the teaching 
afforded. The essential fact is that history affords plentiful 
material for such teaching, far transcending the amount of 
material which can be foimd in the immediate experience 
of the individual. 

It was suggested above that the attitudes (ideals, ambi- 



550 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tions, tendencies to act) developed through the study of his- 
tory are probably more important than the specific knowl- 
edges acquired through such study. For the personal char- 
acter and conduct of the individual the study of history is 
valuable for the stimulation of laudable ambitions, of ideals 
of character, standards of conduct, even certain forms of 
*' hero-worship," which may be guiding forces in the life of 
the individual. Hence the special value of biography as a 
part of history and the desirability of some emphasis on the 
personal conduct and character of truly noble men and 
women. 

(2) The individuaVs participation in social-group activi- 
ties : By far the greater part of the major activities of soci- 
ety are carried on through social institutions (the State, the 
home, the Church, the vocation, the school). An under- 
standing of such institutions, the interpretation of their 
ideals, their interrelations, their functions in modern society, 
cannot be gained without some acquaintance with the na- 
ture of their development. Here again the values of the 
study of such institutions and their interrelations are not 
to be measured solely, or even mainly, by the extent to which 
the individual may consciously apply some bits of historical 
knowledge. Far more important are the attitudes toward 
social-group activities developed through the study of his- 
tory and the unconscious tendencies to act in such activ- 
ities. 

It is only when one thinks of the direct social-civic values 
of the study of history in terms of the applicability of pieces 
of historical information only and loses sight of the influence 
of historical study in developing social ideals, social stand- 
ards, attitudes, and tendencies to act that one is tempted to 
minimize the social-civic values of the study. Likewise, it 
is only when the teaching of history develops merely histori- 
cal information and fails to develop ideals, attitudes, and 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 551 

tendencies to act, that history in the secondary school fails 
to achieve its most important direct values. 

(3) Integrating values of the study of history: The study of 
history must always be one of the important means em- 
ployed by the secondary school to develop the common 
knowledges, ideals, standards, traditions, modes of thought 
and action, essential for social solidarity. The importance 
of the integrating function of secondary education has been 
emphasized in prior chapters. To the end of social integra- 
tion all the social sciences may contribute much. History 
here possesses peculiar advantages, dealing as it does with 
conditions which have determined the society in which we 
live and bringing to consciousness the common activities, 
traditions, ideals of humanity and of one's own society. 
Frequently the conception of the integrating value of the 
study of history has manifested itself in connection with 
the development of patriotism only. Such a conception is 
very narrow — narrow not only in the sense that it has fre- 
quently emphasized a false type of patriotism, but also in 
the sense that it loses sight of the fact that the existence 
of a certain degree of social-mindedness is more essential 
than loyalty. This is, of course, particularly important in 
the American democracy. If the study of history fails 
to aid the development of that unity of sentiment, ideals, 
thought, and action, which is essential for the endurance 
and development of democracy, it fails to achieve one of 
its most important ends. 

236. Direct vocational values claimed. Direct vocational 
values to be derived from the study of history for those 
destined to become teachers of history and certain other 
subjects, for those destined to enter the field of diplomacy, 
and for a few others are readily perceived. Such values, 
however, must be considered limited and highly contingent. 
Far less contingent and far more general must be considered 



55^ PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

those direct vocational values which may be derived from 
acquaintance with the development of commerce and in- 
dustry, the part played by economics in social development, 
the historical relation of the various forms of industry, the 
changing relations of labor and capital, etc. Here again the 
development of attitudes and tendencies to act must be con- 
ceived as far more important than the accumulation of in- 
formation. As one of the major social institutions the voca- 
tion has important historical associations acquaintance with 
which may contribute much to vocational efficiency in its 
broader aspects. Hence the importance sometimes attached 
to the study of industrial history or commercial history in 
certain courses of the secondary school. The more history 
includes a study of economic and industrial factors in the 
development of civilization — a marked tendency at the 
present time — the more the study of history may contrib- 
ute to direct vocational values in the secondary school. 

237. Direct avocational values. History, as every other 
study in the program of the secondary school, may establish 
the basis of a perpetual enjoyment in moments of leisure. 
Here, however, history can claim little that any other sub- 
ject which may arouse a special interest cannot claim, except, 
possibly, where history encroaches on the field of literature 
in the borderland of mythology, biography, and pseudo- 
historical material. 

238. Direct propaedeutic values. In many ways the 
study of history may be considered as a basic study for the 
study of several other subjects, so much so that whole 
schemes of education have been built up on the culture- 
epoch theory with history as its base.^ Certainly we must 
recognize the fact that the humanitarian studies, such as 
the social studies, literature, ethics, philosophy, and the 
rest, cannot be properly pursued without some basic his- 

* Cf. DeGarmo, C, Herbart and the Herbartians, pp. 107-29. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 553 

torical knowledge and understanding. Direct and indirect 
propaedeutic values are, therefore, to be found in the study 
of history. To conceive that such values are valid for those 
only who pursue higher studies in college or the university 
is to assume that contact with the problems and materials 
of those studies must be limited to college and university 
experience. Propaedeutic values of the study of history are, 
of course, as important for those not going to college or the 
university as for those who do — possibly even more so, 
since formal education in those fields is lacking for the 
former. 

239. Conceptual values claimed. The point was made 
above that the chief values to be derived from the study of 
history involved the development of attitudes and tenden- 
cies to act on the part of the individual. This point was 
made in special connection with direct values. Much the 
same point may be emphasized in connection with certain 
more comprehensive and more fundamental factors which 
involve the conscious or unconscious functioning of general 
social concepts to be derived from the study of history. 
Among such fundamental concepts may be emphasized 
those involving the continuity and unity of human experi- 
ence and of civilization, human activity and social organi- 
zation as dynamic and evolutionary, the dependence of the 
present on the past and the responsibility of the present for 
the future, the relation of the individual to society and its 
development.^ It is idle to say that such concepts are not 
always developed from the study of history. The important 
point is that they cannot be developed without some ac- 
quaintance with history. It is idle also to say that such con- 
cepts do not function directly in the activities of the indi- 
vidual. By their very nature such general concepts cannot 

1 Cf . Allen, J. W., The Place of History in Education, chap, x; Johnson, 
H., The Teaching of Ristory, pp. 74 f. 



654 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

be analyzed as to their influence on specific actions, but, 
since they must represent an important part of one's social 
philosophy, they mu^t function in every social act of the 
individual. Though they may function in a fashion which 
may be considered indirect, their functioning is none the 
less real — perhaps more real even than the functioning of 
supposedly specific and direct values. 

240. Transfer values claimed. As for most subjects of 
study in the secondary-school program extensive transfer 
values are commonly claimed for the study of history. Thus 
Salmon: ^ 

Moreover, it must be borne in mind that history, like many other 
subjects, is in the curriculum for a double object — for the direct 
information that it gives and for its help in mental training. 

And Chase: ^ 

Memory is the most wonderful and important of our intellectual 
faculties, and all that tends to strengthen and develop it is of the 
highest importance. History is foremost among the studies that 
do this, for in its very nature it is a memory study, and memory 
gains facility by practice. 

Or Hinsdale : ^ 

While slight attention suffices to show that history has disci- 
plinary values, some well-directed thought is required to discover 
how great and varied this value is. 

Taught even in the poorest way — that is, by dint of iterating 
and reiterating unorganized facts — it trains the memory; taught 
philosophically — that is, care being taken wisely to choose and 
properly to organize the facts — it yields to no other subject in 
mnemonic value. 

All that has been urged concerning the memory will be admitted. 

1 Salmon, L., "Some Principles in the Teaching of History," First 
Yearbook of the National Society for the Scientific Study of Education, p. 32. 

2 Chase, W. J., on p. 289 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High-School 
Education. 

' Hinsdale, B. A., How to Study and Teach History, pp. 7-8. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 555 

But that history is an equally important valuable discipline of the 
imagination has not been as generally perceived. 

But history does far more for the mind than merely to exercise 
the powers of representation; it is also a valuable discipline of the 
thinking faculties. 

Modern psychology denies the existence of such general 
faculties or powers as Hinsdale assumes may be so readily 
trained through the study of history. As was pointed out, 
however, in discussing the problems of transfer values, the 
denial of the obsolete " faculty psychology " does not of 
itself negate the possibility of the transfer of improved ef- 
ficiency, but demands a reconstruction and reinterpret at ion 
of *' discipline " in terms of accepted psychological theory. 
Such a reinterpretation was attempted in Chapter XI and 
in its general form need not be reconsidered here. Accord- 
ingly as one accepts or rejects the possibility of appreciable 
amounts of transfer he may estimate the transfer values of 
the study of history. One very important fact, however, is 
apparently neglected by proponents and opponents of the 
study of history. The problems of transfer in the case of 
history are in important respects different from the prob- 
lems of transfer in the case of most school studies, if, indeed, 
the problems supposed to involve transfer do really involve 
it. In the case of most studies for which transfer values are 
claimed or denied the problem involves the application of 
improved eflSciency acquired in connection with content of 
one kind to content of a widely different character; e.g., 
the transfer of improved efficiency acquired in connection 
with mathematical material to non-mathematical material. 
In the case of history, however, there is a vast field for 
the application of improved efficiency gained in connection 
with specific social data studied to other social data not 
studied. In other words the improved efficiency is to be 
employed in connection with content and situations of the 



556 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

same or relatively similar character. This is doubtless a 
case of transfer, but surely transfer of a far different kind 
from transfer as commonly considered in relation to most 
subjects of study in the school. 

241. Factors conditioning the values of history. Great 
as are the values to be derived from the study of history it 
must be recognized that the subject suffers important limi- 
tations. Among those limitations the ones considered below 
are worthy of special attention. 

(1) Subjects of study differ widely in the extent to which 
their materials lend themselves to ready manipulation for 
purposes of instruction and learning. This factor has been 
emphasized by Keatinge: ^ 

it 

Those who write at large on Education seldom realize that the 
branches of knowledge commonly taught in schools vary greatly 
in the ease with which they lend themselves to manipulation. . . . 

What are the elements necessary in a subject which is to lend 
itself to manipulation? It is easy to sketch in the qualifications. 
In the main they are four in number. The apparatus must be 
inexpensive and readily procured; it must be easy to see what is 
the teacher's work on the one hand and the boy's work on the other; 
there must be a facility for setting home work that shall be different 
in kind from the work done in class, and these exercises must be 
fairly mechanical (for too much refined judgment must not be 
expected from the average boy); it must be possible to attain to 
some generalizations, abstractions, or rules which can be applied 
to fresh matter. Indeed it is upon the presence of this latter ele- 
ment that most of the others depend. 

The older subjects fulfill these conditions well. . . . 

When we turn to history we find the conditions very badly ful- 
filled. It is difficult to devise preparation for the boy other than 
the learning from a text-book of the facts of the lesson that is to be 
given or the revising of the facts of a lesson that has been given. 
In school work it is not always possible to arrive at historical 
generalizations and apply them to fresh matter. 

* Keating, M. W., Studies in the Teaching of History, pp. 1-3, 38 ff. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 557 

The nub of the problem is to be found, of course, in the 
difficulty of so manipulating the materials of history as to 
throw them into problem form without which reflective 
thinking cannot be encouraged or fostered, and to arrange 
the teaching materials of history in such form as may foster 
the process of dissociation.^ It is obvious that, if the prin- 
ciples of social action which it is desired that the study of 
history should develop are actually to be developed, some 
means must be provided for the abstraction of those general 
principles from the historical situations presented. Now it 
is necessary for favorable conditions of such generalization 
that a number of situations be presented which are analo- 
gous but which differ in all other respects other than the 
general principle which it is desired to dissociate. The 
chronological character of history precludes any very effec- 
tive use of this method. For this reason some have suggested 
the abandonment of the chronological order in dealing 
with historical material and the adoption of some method 
which may make possible comparison and abstraction. Thus 
Seeley: ^ 

We still arrange historic phenomena under periods, centuries, 
reigns, dynasties, but what is wanted is a real rather than a tem- 
poral classification. The phenomena should be classified under 
such headings as Constitutional, International, Economical, 
Industrial, etc. Nor should each state be studied by itself, but 
all states together, the comparative method being constantly 
employed, and much attention being given to the classification of 
states. ... In short science brings together phenomena of the 
same kind, but history brings together phenomena of different 
kinds, which have chanced to appear at the same time. 

Such a conception of the teaching of history may be 
opposed by the statement that it is no longer history which 

1 Cf. sections 169/. 

^ Seeley, J. R., Methods of Teaching History y Pedagogical Library, vol. i, 
p. 198. 



558 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

is being studied. Be it so! The answer to such an objec- 
tion is that the character of the study of " history " in the 
secondary school is to be determined by the aim which 
emphasizes the phenomena of human action regardless of 
chronology. In so far as chronology may assist in the attain- 
ment of that aim it is justified. In so far as it fails it must 
be abandoned for the sake of greater values. In any event 
the limitations of history must be recognized.^ 

(2) History is not an exact science and can never become 
an exact science — if, in fact, it may properly be denomi- 
nated a science at all. The importance of this factor arises 
not so much from the fact that specific reactions on the part 
of the individual cannot be exactly determined (a fact 
which has its advantages as well as its disadvantages), but 
that the study of history may always be colored, by the 
teacher or textbook and have widely different results for 
different pupils who have studied the subject. The facts 
of history are of course certain: our knowledge of them is, 
however, not always correct, and interpretations of them are 
sometimes widely divergent. Two dangers, therefore, are 
always present, one that the pupil may have only an ex 
parte opinion on some social problems, the other that, on 
finding disagreement among authorities, he may be discour- 
aged in his attempt to arrive at the truth. These dangers 
are always to be guarded against. 

(3) It takes generations to establish a body of theory and 
practice around the teaching of any subject of study which 
may be considered relatively stable and eflBcient. In the 
development of the study of history in the American second- 
ary school there has been manifest a failure as yet to estab- 
lish any body of theory and practice which approaches even 

^ On the problem-solving methods of teaching history see Parker, S. C, 
Methods of Teaching in High Schools, pp. 174 ff.; Keatinge, M. W., op. cit, 
pp. 38/. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 559 

desirable amounts of uniformity and stability. Textbooks 
vary widely, the contents of courses are greatly dissimilar 
and the treatment different in many schools where any 
attempt is made to do more than teach a certain number 
of facts. It is difficult to determine the actual values accru- 
ing from the study of history in the secondary school where 
such varying conditions are found. 

(4) Since the values aimed at in the study of history are 
in part general and in all cases somewhat intangible it must 
always be difficult to measure the results achieved. This is, 
to be sure, true of most subjects of study, but particularly 
true of those studies whose principal values are to be found 
in the development of character — moral and social — of 
the individual. Certain results of teaching in mathematics, 
in the natural sciences, and in language study may readily 
be estimated and checked from time to time. In the case 
of history little can be done in that direction except as far as 
the accumulation of historical information is concerned. 

242. Meaning and scope of civics. The study of civics 
in the secondary school had its beginning in the study of the 
federal constitution, various State constitutions, and in a 
few cases of such material as city charters, in the early high 
school. Thus at least as early as 1828 Stanbury's Catechism 
on the Constitution of the United States was studied in the 
English High School of Boston, and in Salem the English 
High School course of 1842 included the study of *' the City 
Charter, Constitution of Massachusetts, and . . . Consti- 
tution of the United States." From the beginning, there- 
fore, the study of " civics " meant the rather formal (fre- 
quently catechetical) study of the machinery of State and 
National government, thus justifying the term "civil 
government." ^ Throughout the nineteenth century the 
study of civics included little else than this. 

^ For example, see Sullivan's Poliiiccd Classhook, or Bayard On the Con- 
gHtutiorit two books in common use in the earlier high school. 



560 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Within the past decade or so the feeling has been growing 
stronger and stronger that the study of the machinery of 
the National Government, valuable though it may be made, 
is far from adequate for the purpose of training citizens. 
Present-day theory tends to enlarge the meaning and scope 
of the study of civics in such a way as to involve : (1) empha- 
sis on the commoner elements of social and civic activity 
in community life; (2) emphasis on the importance of 
developing tendencies to act and attitudes toward social 
welfare rather than on mere knowledge of the machinery of 
government; (3) the extension of the field of civics so as to 
include the informal activities of social-civic life as well as 
the more formal political activities; (4) the "vitalization" 
of civics by emphasizing in the beginning those forms of 
social-civic activity with which the secondary-school pupil 
is brought into intimate and immediate contact. 

243. The aims and values of civics. The values of the 
study of civics are to be interpreted in terms of its contribu- 
tions to the social-civic aim of secondary education prima- 
rily. Here are involved: (1) the attainment on the part of 
the pupil of a knowledge of social-civic relations and insti- 
tutions, their character, and place in social organization; 
(2) the development in the pupil of a sense of social-civic 
responsibility; (3) the development in the pupil of attitudes 
and tendencies to act in conformance with desirable ideals 
of social-civic activity. The mere attainment of a knowledge 
of our social-civic organization or even the development in 
the pupil of a sense of civic responsibility and ideals of civic 
conduct is not sufficient. Unless such knowledge, such a 
sense of social responsibility, such civic ideals, are trans- 
lated into forms of behavior and result in proper civic action, 
the values of the study of civics cannot be attained. Here, 
more than in the case of most studies in the secondary 
school, direct values are dominant and no accumulation of 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 561 

information concerning the functions of government or the 
relation of the individual to government can take the place 
of the development of social attitudes and tendencies to act. 
It is unfortunate that the aims of the study of civics are 
frequently stated in terms of knowledge and that the teach- 
ing of civics so frequently results only in the inculcation 
of civic information. Thus the Committee on the Teaching 
of Government of the American Pohtical Science Associa- 
tion unfortunately puts the cart before the horse in its 
statement of the aims of civic instruction : ^ 

The prime purposes of a study of civic relations are so obvious 
as to require little in the way of discussion. They may be summa- 
rized thus: 

1. To awaken a knowledge of the fact that the citizen is in a 
social environment whose laws bind him for his own good. 

2. To acquaint the citizen with the forms of organization and 
methods of administration of government in its several depart- 
ments. 

These objects it is believed can be better attained if the school 
begins to aid the young citizen not only to think in terms of society 
but also to translate civic thought into action. 

That the study of civics in the past has tended to result 
in information rather than in behavior is due in large part 
to the fact that civics has commonly been taught as a study 
of the broader functions of National and State government 
and has seldom touched the commoner activities of indi- 
viduals in community life wherein the actual behavior 
of pupil-citizens in civic affairs can be directly affected. 
Modern civics by dealing first with the civic activities 
which intimately touch the young citizen even as a pupil 
in the school affords greater opportunity to develop actual 
habits of behavior in civic affairs. This is one of the prime 
advantages of "community civics." 

^ American Political Science Association, Committee on the Teaching 
of Government, Report, p. 27. 



562 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

244. The scope and function of " community civics." 
Civics as heretofore presented in the American secondary 
school has proved comparatively fruitless for a number of 
reasons: (1) because it has been taught as an abstract science 
of government; (2) because it has been limited to the larger 
aspects of National and State government; (3) because it 
has been taught commonly in the last grade of the secondary 
school after the majority of pupils have left school; (4) be- 
cause it has neglected to train pupil-citizens in their imme- 
diate community responsibilities, both formal and informal. 
Community civics is designed to remedy those defects. 

Community civics takes its name, not from any restric- 
tion of its scope to the smaller community, — village, town, 
or city, — but from the fact that the social environment of 
the pupil is conceived as opened up to him through a series 
of successively enlarged communities or spheres of civic 
life — family, neighborhood, town, county. State, Nation, 
Humanity — and that the series of his social-civic contacts 
or experiences begins with the smaller unit. 

The aims of community civics are the same as those men- 
tioned above. They may be stated specifically in the terms 
of the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on 
the Reorganization of Secondary Education : ^ 

(a) Significance of the term " community.'^ Community civics lays 
emphasis upon the local community because (1) it is the com- 
munity with which every citizen, especially the child, comes into 
most intimate relations, and which is always in the foreground of 
experience; (2) it is easier for the child, as for any citizen, to realize 
his membership iu the local community, to feel a sense of personal 
responsibility for it, and to enter into actual cooperation with it, 
than is the case with the National community. 

^ The Teaching of Community Civics, Bureau of Education Bulletin (1915), 
no. 23, pp. 11-12. The quotation given was taken from the Report of the 
Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Sec- 
ondary Education^ Bureau of Education Bulletin (1916), no. 28, pp. 22-23. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCLENCES 563 

But our Nation and our State are communities, as well as our 
city or village, and a child is a citizen of the larger as of the smaller 
community. The significance of the term "community civics" 
does not lie in its geographical implications, but in its implications 
of community relations, of a community of interests. ... It is a 
question of point of view, and community civics applies this point 
of view to the study of the National community as well as to the 
study of the local community. 

(6) AiTns of community civics. The aim of community civics is 
to help the child to know his community — ■ not merely a lot of 
facts about it, but the meaning of his community life, what it does 
for him, and how it does it, what the community has a right to 
expect from him, and how he may fulfill his obligation, meanwhile 
cultivating in him the essential qualities and habits of good citi- 
zenship. 

More specifically this aim is analyzed as follows: 

To accomplish its part in training for citizenship, community 
civics should aim primarily to lead the pupil (1) to see the impor- 
tance and significance of the elements of community welfare in 
their relations to himself and to the communities of which he is a 
member; (2) to know the social agencies, governmental and volun- 
tary, that exist to secure these elements of community welfare; 
(3) to recognize his civic obligations, present and futiu-e, and to 
respond to them by appropriate action. 

Civics, conceived from this viewpoint, should prove a 
much more efficacious instrument of education in the sec- 
ondary school than the civics which has hitherto been taught 
as an appendage to history. It should be clear that the val- 
ues of such a study are universal and direct. It is imperative 
therefore, that community civics should be studied by every 
pupil in the secondary school. It should be clear also that 
if the study is to produce its greatest values it should not 
be relegated to the later grades of the school but should be 
a prominent study in the junior high school before pupils 
begin to leave school in large numbers. 

245. Economics as a study in the program. The study 
of economics early found some place in the program of the 



564 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDAEY EDUCATION 

public secondary school. Thus " political philosophy " was 
prescribed for study in the English Classical (High) School 
of Boston in 1821 and in Massachusetts " political economy " 
was required by law to be taught in all larger high schools 
from 1857 to 1898. Despite its early beginning, however, 
economics has always occupied a precarious position in the 
program of the secondary school. When taught it was 
almost invariably presented in the form of a logically organ- 
ized science little suited to the needs and capacities of most 
high-school pupils. Only within the past few years has any 
attempt been made to organize and teach economic princi- 
ples in the secondary school in a manner at all adapted to 
the maturity and capacity of the pupils. 

It is clear that the activities of modern industrial and 
social life in America call for some acquaintance with the 
common and fundamental principles of economics on the 
part of every individual. It is clear also that the average 
man or woman at present is lamentably ignorant of the 
simplest laws of economics which play such an important 
part in our social organization. Some provision must be 
made to meet the apparent need. Some of the necessary 
economic knowledges can be secured incidentally through 
the study of geography, history, civics, and other subjects 
in the elementary and secondary schools. Incidental study 
of that sort is, however, insufficient. The fact must be 
faced that large numbers of boys and girls are constantly 
going forth from the school into the world of industry where 
they must deal with problems social and industrial which 
call for a working knowledge of common economic princi- 
ples. The growing social and political importance of eco- 
nomic problems, the increasing complexity of governmental- 
industrial relations, the changing relations of capital and 
labor, of employee and employer, the development of labor 
organizations, emphasize the need for such instruction at 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 565 

the present time. Unless we are to trust to the influence of 
demagogues and exploiters of industry some provision must 
be made in the school for this imminent need. 

Common practice relegates all direct instruction in eco- 
nomics to the college or other higher institution. Doubtless 
the more mature the student the more readily he may un- 
derstand the principles of economics and the more compre- 
hensive may be his grasp of that science. Hence it is com- 
monly urged that secondary-school pupils are incapable of 
understanding the principles of economic laws. Such an 
argument is for the most part based on the conception of 
economics as a logically organized and complete science. 
For the study of economics in this sense there is no place in 
the secondary school. However, many important princi- 
ples and problems of economics are readily understood and 
eagerly studied by pupils of secondary-school age. An 
important distinction should be made between a philosophic 
study of economics as a logically organized science and a 
" practical " study of certain of its principles and problems 
as involved in the activities of " the common man." The 
philosophic study of economics belongs to higher education. 
The " practical " study of economic elements has a legitimate 
place in the program of the secondary school. Either as a 
separate subject or as an important part of such a composite 
subject as that considered in the following section, the 
study of the commoner principles of economics has a legi- 
timate and important place in the program of secondary 
education. * 

246. The study of " Problems of American Democracy." 
The Committee on Social Studies has recommended the 
study of "Problems of American Democracy, Economic, 
Social, Political " as a 

culminating course of social study in the last year of the high 
school, with the purpose of giving a more definite, comprehensive. 



566 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and deeper knowledge of some of the vital problems of social 
life, and thus of securing a more intelligent and active citizen- 
ship.^ 

Two considerations led the committee to make this recom- 
mendation: (1) the difficulty of providing for separate in- 
struction in the many social studies which are claimants for 
a position in the program of the secondary school; e.g., 
economics, sociology, law, politics, etc. ; (2) the fact that in 
actual life the individual faces problems or conditions in 
which the principles of a number of social sciences are inex- 
tricably related. The committee summarizes its reasons for 
proposing such a course as follows : ^ 

(1) It is impracticable to include in the high-school program a 
comprehensive course in each of the social sciences. And yet it 
is unjust to the pupil that his knowledge of social facts and laws 
should be limited to the field of any one of them, however impor- 
tant that one may be. 

(2) The purposes of secondary education and not the intrinsic 
value of any particular body of knowledge should be the determin- 
ing consideration. From the standpoint of the purposes of second- 
ary education, it is far less important that the adolescent youth 
should acquire a comprehensive knowledge of any or all of the 
social sciences than it is that he should be given experience and 
practice in the observation of social phenomena as he encounters 
them; that he should be brought to understand that every social 
problem is many-sided and complex; and that he should acquire 
the habit of forming social judgments only on the basis of dispas- 
sionate consideration of all the facts available. This, the commit- 
tee believes, can best be accomplished by dealing with actual 
situations as thfey occur and by drafting into service the materials 
of all the social sciences as occasion demands for a thorough under- 
standing of the situations in question. 

(3) The principles upon which such a course is based are the 
same as those which have been successfully appHed in community 
civics, sociology, and even history. 

^ Report of the Committee, op. cit.y pp. 52 ff. ^ Ibid., p. 56. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 567 

It will be seen from the recommendations of the commit- 
tee that the organization of the course proposed follows out 
the ideas dominant in the recommendations for courses in 
civics, namely that the study should be organized not in 
terms of the demands of the subject or subjects as logically 
arranged abstract sciences but in terms of the activities in 
which individuals participate. The proposal of the commit- 
tee is worthy of adoption. 

247. Criticism of social studies as now organized. In the 
light of the preceding discussion it would appear that several 
important criticisms may be made concerning the economy 
of the social sciences in the secondary school as at present 
organized. Among these may be emphasized the following: 

(1) The values of the study of the social sciences in the 
secondary school have always suffered from the tendency 
to organize their materials and determine content and 
method with reference to the organization of the subjects 
as logical sciences rather than with reference to the needs 
and capacities of the pupils and with respect to the situations 
in life in which they may use them. The conception of his- 
tory from the historian's standpoint rather than from the 
standpoint of its use as a subject of study in the secondary 
school has in most cases led to an organization of material 
and a determination of teaching methods ill-suited to the 
attainment of the potential values of that subject. Similar 
results have come from the conception that "civil govern- 
ment" and "poUtical economy" should be taught as logi- 
cally organized sciences. ^ 

(2) In the study of history attention has been given 
almost exclusively to military and political events to the 
neglect of important events of social, intellectual, and 
economic importance. The modern development of the 
sociological conception of history emphasizes the impor- 
tance of historical material previously neglected. While it 



568 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

is "a still unsolved problem ... to determine what condi- 
tions and institutions shall be given the preference, consid- 
ering the capacity of the students on the one hand, and the 
limitations of time on the other," it is nevertheless note- 
worthy that attention is at present being directed toward 
other elements in history than wars, kings, major matters 
of national development, and the like. 

(3) In spite of the acceptance of a theory that the study of 
the past should aid in an understanding of the present, the 
teaching of history in the past has signally failed to relate 
historical events to the present and future needs of the 
pupils. 

The ideal history for each of us would be those facts of past 
human experience to which we should have recourse oftenest in 
our endeavors to understand ourselves and our fellows. No one 
account would meet the needs of all, but all would agree that much 
of what now passes for the elements of history meet the needs of 
none. . . . No one questions the inalienable right of the historian 
to interest himself in any phase of the past that he chooses. It is 
only to be wished that a greater number of historians has greater 
skill in hitting upon those phases of the past which serve us best 
in understanding the most vital problems of the present.^ 

(4) In the past the study of civics has been subordinated 
to the study of history. For this there can be no justifica- 
tion and modern tendencies to afford civics its proper place 
in the secondary-school program deserve universal support. 

(5) In the past, and in most cases at present, the tendency 
is to limit the study of civics to the formal study of the ma- 
chinery of government. If the study of civics is to be made 
effective its field must be broadened so as to include the 
study of the commoner affairs of social-civic activity. 

(6) The practice, though lessening still dominant, of post- 

* Robinson, J. H., "The New History," Proceedings of the American 
Philosophical Society, vol. l, pp. 189-90. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 569 

poning the study of American history, and particularly civ- 
ics, to the later part of the secondary-school course, is very 
faulty. Such postponement means that two thirds of the 
pupils entering the high-school course can never receive the 
necessary benefits of the study of those subjects. The grow- 
ing practice of offering civics in the earlier years of the 
secondary school is to be encouraged. 

(7) In many secondary schools at the present time it is 
possible for pupils to pass through the entire course without 
ever coming into contact with the social sciences. If the 
values of the study of the social sciences are rightly con- 
ceived to be universal and certain, not limited or contingent, 
it must be recognized that some contact with the social 
studies should be provided for every pupil in the school. 

(8) The study of social sciences other than history and 
civics is all but neglected in the American secondary school. 
Such neglect cannot be justified. It must be recognized, 
however, that the study of social phenomena as abstract 
and logically organized sciences has no place in the second- 
ary-school program. The correct approach is indicated by 
the modern tendencies to be found in community civics and 
is such a course as that proposed in Problems of American 
Democracy. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. What are the arguments for and against the study of "history" by 
institutions rather than by periods? (Cf. Seeley^ J. R., Methods of 
Teaching History.) 

2. What are the arguments for and against the introduction of a course 
in "The Study of Nations"? (Cf. Kingsley, C. D., School and Society, 
vol. ni, pp. 37-41.) 

3. What are the arguments for and against a requirement of some social 
study by every pupil in each grade of the secondary school? 

4. What differences should be made in the social studies of different 
groups of pupils in the secondary school? 

5. Trace the development of social studies in the program of the second- 
ary school. 



570 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

6. Compare the place of social studies in the secondary schools of America, 
Germany, and France. 

7. For any high school or any group of high schools determine the actual 
amount of social studies engaged in by members of any" class " through- 
out the coiu-se. Consider those who leave school as well as those who 
remain throughout the course. 

8. Outline a series of problems of topics which would properly find place 
in a course of "Problems of American Democracy." (Cf. Report of the 
Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization 
of Secondary Education, pp. 52-56.) 

9. To what extent would it be possible to organize history teaching on the 
form of "problem-solving" exercises? (Cf. Parker, S. C, Methods of 
Teaching in High Schools, p. 174 jf . ; Keatinge, M. W., Studies in the 
Teaching of History.) 

10. Compare several different textbooks in American history with respect 
to emphasis on political matters, institutional development, economic 
changes, social changes, military matters, intellectual matters, etc. 

11. Compare textbooks in Civics with reference to the amount of attention 
devoted to various topics. 

12. Trace the requirements in social studies for college admission. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Allen, J. W., The Place of History in Education, especially pp. 156-79. 
American Historical Association, Committee of Seven, Report on the Study 

of History in Schools (1898). (Published by The Macmillan Company.) 
American Historical Association, Committee of Eight, Report on the Study 

of History in Elementary Schools (1909). (Published by Charles Scrib- 

ner's Sons.) 
American Historical Association, Committee of Five, Report on the Study 

of History in Secondary Schools (1911). (Published by The Macmillan 

Company.) 
American Political Science Association, Committee of Five, Report on 

Instruction in American Government in Secondary Schools, Proceedings 

of the Association (1908), vol. v, pp. 218-57. 
American Political Science Association, Report of the CommiHee on Instruc- 
tion, The Teaching of Government (1916), especially pp. 1-134. (Published 

by The Macmillan Company.) 
Bourne, H. E., The Teaching of History and Civics in the Elementary and 

Secondary Schools, especially pp. 77-105. 
Hall, G. S., Educational Problems, vol. n, pp. 667-82. 
Haynes, J., Economics in Secondary Schools. 
Hill, M., The Teaching of Civics. 

Hinsdale, B. A., How to Study and Teach History, pp. 1-26. 
Johnson, H., The Teaching of History, pp. 55-83. 



THE PLACE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 571 

Judd, C, H., Psychology oj High-School Subjects, chap. xvi. 

Keatinge, M. W., Studies in the Teaching of History^ especially pp. 1-95. 

Kingsley, CD., and Others, The Teaching of Community Civics, Bureau of 
Education Bulletin (1915), no. 23. 

Kingsley, C. D., "The Study of Nations," School and Society, vol. m, 
pp. 37-41. 

National Education Association, Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary 
Studies, pp. 162-185. (Bureau of Education edition: also published by 
The American Book Company.) 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education, Report of the Committee on Social Studies in 
Secondary Education, Bureau of Education Bulletin (1916), no, 18. 

New England History Teachers' Association, Outline for the Study of Ameri- 
can Civil Government in Secondary Schools (1910). (PubHshed by The 
Macmillan Company.) 

Robinson, J. H., The New History. 

Russell, W. F., "The Entrance of History into the Curriculum of the Sec- 
ondary School," The History Teacher's Magazine, vol. v, pp. 313 ff. 

Salmon, L. M., "Some Principles in the Teaching of History," First 
Yearbook of the National Society for the Scientific Study of Education, 
especially chaps, ii-vi. 

Seeley, J. R., Methods of Teaching History, Pedagogical Library, vol. i. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chaps, xvi-xvii. 

Extended bibliography: American Political Science Association, Report of 
the Committee on InstruMion, The Teaching of Government, pp. Ill ^. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE PLACE OF PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 
IN THE PROGRAM 

I. General Considerations 

248. Historical position of the practical arts. While the 
most noteworthy development of the practical and voca- 
tional arts in the program of the secondary school has taken 
place within the past decade, some beginnings of its develop- 
ment were to be found as early as the beginning of the acad- 
emy movement and were not lacking in the early high- 
school movement. In its beginning the public high school 
was characterized by attempts to provide secondary educa- 
tion for those who were not to receive a college education 
and there was a real intent on the part of its founders and 
advocates to provide suitable subject-matter for such boys 
and girls. Thus in the first high school established, the 
English Classical (High) School of Boston, it was designed 
to provide an education for boys which should serve as 
a foundation for eminence in their professions, "whether 
mercantile or mechanical." In the early high schools sur- 
veying and navigation were taught as early as 1821, book- 
keeping by 1823, "commerce" before 1838, stenography as 
early as 1849, and sewing as early as 1840, It must be recog- 
nized, however, that little support was given to such studies 
and that, even in the case of the few practical subjects 
receiving a measure of support, the instruction was extremely 
formal and detached from practical or vocational applica- 
tion. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century 
increased attention was paid to the clerical or commercial 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 573 

arts, to manual arts, and to the somewhat higher technical 
arts of industry. Provision for these arts, however, was by 
no means universal, and in the majority of schools where 
such studies were provided instruction failed lamentably to 
fulfill its purpose. Thus in most cases "manual training'* 
took the direction first of general discipline, then of "manual 
expression," rather than vocational efficiency, and technical 
education was soon restricted in most high schools to the 
preparation of boys for entrance to the technical college. 
Of the vocational subjects the clerical or "commercial** 
alone had made noticeable headway by the end of the nine- 
teenth century. 

About the beginning of the twentieth century a number 
of important factors began to receive attention and the recog- 
nition of their importance has led to a revised conception 
of the place of practical and vocational arts in the program 
of the secondary school. Prominent among such factors were 
recognized the following: (1) the relative ineffectiveness of 
the formalized education already provided for the practical 
arts; (2) the changed character of the secondary-school 
population; (3) the importance of retardation and elimina- 
tion and the needs of boys and girls who leave school at an 
early age or stage; (4) the changes which have taken place 
in other social agencies which formerly provided valuable 
forms of practical and vocational training; (5) the demands 
of modern occupational life. Recognition of those and other 
factors has revolutionized conceptions of the place of the 
practical and vocational arts in the secondary school and 
has tended to produce the following results: (a) the closer 
articulation with the actual conditions of workaday life of 
such practical arts as had already found some place in the 
program; (6) the acceptance of the vocational aim, or at 
least the applied aim, as the dominant element determin- 
ing the place and purpose of practical arts in the program; 



574 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

(c) an extension of the number and scope of practical and vo- 
cational arts in the secondary school; (d) a revision of the 
aims, values, and methods of almost all subjects of study 
in the school and attempts to establish their relations to 
practical life. 

249. Present status in the program. As far as practical 
and vocational arts in the secondary school are concerned 
the present cannot be described otherwise than as a period 
of experimentation, characterized by endeavors to put into 
practical operation the conceptions outlined in the preced- 
ing paragraph. In the majority of public secondary schools 
little attempt has been made to meet imperative demands 
for the organization of practical and vocational arts training 
either in the secondary school proper or through the second- 
ary school in cooperation with other agencies. In schools 
where such organization has been attempted the recency 
of those attempts has permitted the development of few 
settled policies or conditions. The field of these arts is obvi- 
ously the field where differentiated education is dominant 
and, therefore, the field where the greatest amount of varia- 
tion is to be expected. 

At present the majority of public secondary schools in the 
more progressive communities provide in some degree for 
certain domestic arts instruction (at least courses in sewing 
and cooking) and for commercial education (at least in the 
clerical branches). Far less provision has as yet been made 
for courses in industrial and agricultural arts, least of all in 
the former. In the entire field of practical and vocational 
arts instruction in the school the United States has followed 
far in the rear of more progressive countries in Europe. 
However, recent activity by cities. States, and by the Federal 
Government bids fair to inaugurate a new era for practical 
and vocational education throughout the country. In par- 
ticular the federal Smith-Hughes Act, passed by Congress in 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 575 

February, 1917, must give great impetus to that form of 
education through the encouragement provided by the 
appropriation of large sums of money to the several States 
for the payment of the salaries of teaqhers, supervisors, and 
directors of agricultural subjects, the salaries of teachers of 
trade, home economics, and industrial subjects, and for the 
training of such teachers, supervisors, and directors. 

250. Values of the practical and vocational arts. The 
fundamental values of the practical and vocational arts 
in the program of the secondary school are to be determined, 
of course, in terms of their relation to the economic- voca- 
tional aim of secondary education. Those values are direct 
and specific. In Chapter IV it was shown that little more 
than one third of those pupils who enter the first grade of 
the elementary school reach the first grade of the four-year 
high school; that of those entering the high school about 
one third leave before the beginning of the second year, 
about one half leave before the beginning of the third year, 
two thirds before the beginning of the fourth year; and that 
of those who enter the seventh grade of the school system 
about one quarter leave before the eighth grade, one third 
to one half before the ninth grade, two thirds before the 
tenth grade, three quarters before the eleventh grade, and 
nearly four fifths before the twelfth grade. ^ Boys and girls 
who leave school before the completion of the secondary- 
school course for the most part enter commercial, industrial, 
agricultural, and household pursuits. Throughout their lives 
the economic activities in which they engage will be found 
in those fields. In 1913 approximately a million and a half 
boys and girls were enrolled in the seventh grade of the 
public schools of the United States. Of that number prob- 
ably 600,000 left school by 1916 and many more will leave 
school before the end of the secondary school course for that 
1 Cf . Tables LV, LVI, LVU. 



576 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

" class " in 1919. It is probable that about one half of those 
who will complete the secondary-school course in 1919 will 
enter commercial, industrial, agricultural, and household 
pursuits, so that in all probability about 1,300,000 boys 
and girls already have entered or will enter those occupa- 
tions from that group of children who were in the seventh 
grade of the schools in 1913. A moderate estimate would 
place the number of boys and girls leaving school from 
grades above the sixth grade at more than one million an- 
nually. Compared with this the number of those complet- 
ing the secondary-school course and entering other pursuits 
in life immediately or later is insignificant. By far the 
greatest proportion of those leaving school before the com- 
pletion of the course will engage in practical-arts pursuits. 
For those pupils instruction in the practical-arts subjects 
of a vocational purpose and character is necessary and 
legitimate. 

251. Conditions emphasizing practical and vocational 
arts. Numerous factors have combined to emphasize the 
values and the place of the practical and vocational arts in 
the secondary-school program at the present time. All have 
been considered at some length in preceding sections of this 
book. They may be summarized briefly here. 

(1) Developments in educational theory : Three important 
developments in educational theory affect the present situa- 
tion as far as the practical arts are concerned, (a) Much of 
the failure properly to provide for practical and vocational 
education during the nineteenth century was due to a belief 
that '* general abilities " suitable for all activities of life 
could be gained through the intensive study of a few sub- 
jects. Thus the founders of the English Classical (High) 
School of Boston in 1821 desired to provide an education 
*' calculated to bring the powers of the mind into operation " 
and to " serve as a foundation for eminence in his (the 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 577 

pupil's) profession, whether mercantile or mechanical." 
Thus the manual training movement ran on the rocks of a 
belief in the possibility of developing " general manual dex- 
terity" and the accompanying mental powers. Modern 
psychological and educational theory has greatly restricted 
the application of any such theory and placed much greater 
emphasis on specific training, (b) Modern educational 
theory, by determining the values and aims of subject- 
matter in the secondary school in terms of the contributions 
made to the activities in which the individual will partici- 
pate, has greatly increased the attention to be paid to sub- 
jects contributing to the attainment of the economic-voca- 
tional aim. (c) Recognition of the existence, character, and 
distribution of individual differences in the capacities, inter- 
ests, and probable future activities of pupils, and recogni- 
tion of the differentiated needs of society have given in- 
creased impetus to the movement to provide a wide range 
of differentiated studies in the program to meet the needs 
both of pupils and of society. 

(2) Developments in the secondary -school population: 
Within the past quarter of a century noteworthy changes 
have taken place in the secondary-school population. In 
numbers the secondary-school population has increased 
from 297,894 pupils (one for every 210 of total population 
in 1889-1890) to 1,373,661 pupils (one for every 73 of the 
estimated total population in 1914-1915). In character the 
secondary-school population has changed from a roughly 
homogeneous group of those designed for the higher walks 
of life to a highly heterogeneous group of pupils destined to 
enter all sorts of occupations. 

(3) Developments in other social institutions : In Chapter 
IX a somewhat detailed though brief consideration was 
given to the changes which have taken place in other social 
institutions tending to decrease the stimuli and opportuni- 



578 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ties previously afforded for vocational training, and at the 
same time to demand a higher degree of vocational efficiency. 
Little further need here be said otherwise than to repeat 
that the occupations themselves, home and community life, 
and other agencies have lost many stimuli and opportuni- 
ties for vocational training which they will probably never 
recover. Thus the responsibility has been forced on the 
school for training previously provided more or less ade- 
quately by other social agencies. 

252. The field of vocational education. Practical-arts 
and vocational education in the secondary school must be 
determined by the conditions in the economic world which 
the pupils will later enter. Some conception of the range, 
variety, and importance of various occupations may be 
gained from the occupation statistics presented in the fourth 
volume of the Thirteenth Census Report (1910). The occu- 
pations there listed are classified under their main divisions 
in the following table: 

Table CXXXIX. Ntjmber and Proportion of Persons m 
THE General Divisions of Occupations (1910) * 



Occupations 



Agriculture, etc 

Extraction of minerals 

Manufacturing, mechanical in- 
dustry 

Transportation 

Trade 

Public service f 

Professional service 

Domestic and personal service. . 
Clerical occupations 



Total persons engaged 



Numbers 



All 



12,659,203 
964,824 

10,658,881 
2,637,671 
3,614,670 
459,291 
1,663,569 
3,772,174 
1,737,053 



38,167,336 



Male Female 



10,851,702 
963,730 

8,837,901 
2,531,075 
3,146,582 
445,733 
929,684 
1,241,328 
1,143,829 



30,091,564 



1,807,501 
1,094 

1,820,980 

106,598 

468,088 

13,558 

733,885 

2,530,846 
593,224 



8,075,772 



Per cents 



All Male Female 



33.2 

2.5 

27.9 
6.9 
9.5 
1.2 

4.4 
9.9 
4.6 



100.0 



3.2 

29.4 
8.4 

10.5 
1.5 
3.1 
4.1 
3.8 



100.0 



22.4 
0.1 

22.5 
1.3 
5.8 
0.2 
9.1 

31.3 
7.3 



100.0 



* Thirteenih Gmsus Espert (1910), vol. iv, p. 40. 



t " Not elsewhere classified. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 579 

According to this table the general divisions of occupa- 
tions engaging as large a proportion as five per cent of men 
or women are as follows: men — agriculture (36.1 per cent), 
manufacturing and mechanical industry (29.4 per cent), 
transportation (8.4 per cent), trade (10.5 per cent); women 
— agriculture (22.4 per cent), manufacturing and mechani- 
cal industry (22.5 per cent), trade (5.8 per cent), profes- 
sional service (9.1 per cent, of which more than two thirds 
are teachers), domestic and personal service (31.3 per cent), 
clerical occupations (7.3 per cent). From this list some occu- 
pations may be eliminated as far as general provision for 
vocational education in the secondary school is concerned. 
Thus transportation engages the activity of more than two 
and one half million men, but far more than one half of that 
number are unskilled laborers. Thus also professional service 
engages 733,885 women, but of that number 478,027 are 
school-teachers for whom higher professional education is 
necessary. Hence the occupations engaging the largest 
number of men or women and suitable for consideration 
in connection with vocational education in the secondary 
school are agriculture, manufacturing and mechanical in- 
dustry, trade, domestic service, and clerical occupations. 

253. Relative importance of various occupations. ^ Varia- 
tion in the values of various vocational subjects is obviously 
a very important factor affected extensively by geographi- 
cal considerations. This is noticeable not only for smaller 
districts but also for States and even larger geographic divi- 
sions. Thus in Mississippi more than three quarters of all 
workers are engaged in agriculture; in Massachusetts less 
than five per cent. In Rhode Island more than one half are 
engaged in manufacturing and mechanical industries; in 
Mississippi less than eight per cent. In Nevada more than 

^ All figures in this section are taken from p. 45 of the fourth volume of 
the Thirteenth Census Report (1910). 



580 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

one fifth are engaged in the extraction of minerals; in Missis- 
sippi less than one tenth of one per cent. In California about 
fourteen per cent are engaged in trade; in South Carolina 
about three per cent. For geographic divisions of the coun- 
try the figures are as follows: 

Table CXL. Percentages of Workers in Various 
Occupations (1910) * 







»-2 






















'a 4 












OD 






^ 


8 S 








S 


- 


8 








^-^ 








•g 


fe 


'•S 




u 


8 


^•5 


a 








f^ «i 


a 






> 


•£"3 


o 
^2 




.§ 




-^•s 


s 


Geographic 
Division 


1 


1 
« 


ufactu 
zchanii 
es 


B 

o 

00 


"g 


«0 


i 


§ Is 

§1 


o 
"a 






£ 

H 




1 


J 




> 


o "o 


». 
-S 




^ 


KJ 


Es 


&s 


a^ 


fis 


Cl 


O 




(per 


(per 


{per 


{per 


{per 


(per 


{per 


{per 


{per 




cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


cent) 


New England 


10.4 


0.3 


49.1 


6.5 


10.6 


^ 1.7 


4.8 


10.7 


6.9 


Middle Atlantic 


10.0 


4.2 


40.6 


8.0 


12.0 


1.4 


4.9 


11.8 


7.1 


East North Central... 


25.6 


2.6 


33.2 


7.6 


10.6 


1.1 


4.8 


9.2 


5.3 


"West North Central... 


41.2 


1.8 


20 


7.8 


10.4 


1.1 


5.2 


8.5 


3.9 


South Atlantic 


51.4 


1.8 


18.6 


5.0 


6.1 


1.0 


3.0 


10.5 


2.6 


East South Central . . . 


63.2 


1.9 


12.4 


4.0 


5.3 


0.6 


2.6 


8.4 


1.7 


West South Central... 


60.1 


0.7. 


12.6 


5.2 


7.0 


0.8 


3.3 


8.1 


2.1 


IVIountain 


32.4 
22.6 


9.4 

2.4 


19.5 

27.2 


10.3 
10.3 


8.7 
12.6 


1.7 
2.0 


5.2 
6.0 


9.1 
11.3 


3.6 


Pacific 


5.5 






United States 


33.2 


2.5 


27.9 


6.9 


9.5 


1.2 


4.4 


9.9 


4.6 



* Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv, pp. 44-45. 

This geographic variation in economic activities gives 
rise to one of the most important problems of vocational 
education, namely, the problem of adapting it to local con- 
ditions as determined by the economic activity and the 
character of the population served. This problem is best 
considered in connection with the principles governing the 
selection of vocational subjects discussed in the following 
section. 

254. Principles governing selection. The wide range and 
variety of vocational fields ai^d differing local conditions 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 581 

emphasize the factor of selection in determining the char- 
acter of vocational education in any locality. Here a num- 
ber of important principles are involved. 

(1) Only those occupations which afford opportunity for 
a relatively large number of skilled workers should be repre- 
sented by vocational subjects in the secondary school. The 
economics of secondary-school administration and the law 
of demand and supply alike negate or affirm the advisability 
of introducing various vocational subjects into the school. 

(2) Only those occupations which have a fairly steady 
and general demand for skilled workers should be repre- 
sented by related vocational subjects in the secondary 
school. No school can afford to introduce vocational sub- 
jects when the occupations for which they prepare vary 
widely in the rate of demand for workers thus prepared. 

(3) Only those occupations which offer opportunity for 
lengthy employment should be represented by related vo- 
cational subjects in the secondary school. Society cannot 
afford to provide expensive vocational education for occu- 
pations wherein the worker's usefulness is relatively short 
as measured by his employment in that occupation. 

(4) Only those occupations which offer somewhat pro- 
gressively increased returns to the individual and to society 
as the result of progressively increased skill or knowledge 
should be represented by related vocational subjects in the 
secondary school. Education in the school cannot assist in 
the exploitation of the worker by industry. 

If our Investigation of this question [Are skilled processes ahead?] 
shows that the employment is of the "blind-alley" type, in which 
two or three weeks, or even less, suffices to master all the technical 
training and skill that can be employed in the work, — which is 
true of about eighty-five per cent of the paper-box-making indus- 
try and of about an equal percentage of the machine work in shirt 
and collar factories, — it is evident that no trade training at public 



582 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

expense should be provided. If the advanced processes of the 
work are so simple in nature that all the knowledge and skill needed 
can be picked up in the trade itself with what little assistance can 
be given by a foreman, which is possible in plants working on 
white goods, in power sewing, straw-hat sewing, and underwear 
knitting, it is then inadvisable to use public funds for training 
wprkers to enter that industry. ^ 

(5) Local or sectional occupations which meet the de- 
mands suggested above should primarily be represented by 
related vocational subjects in the secondary school. It is 
to be noted, however, that dominant local occupations con- 
stitute but one of two important factors to be considered. 
The other factor is the factor of individual differences in 
capacities and aptitudes in the secondary-school population 
as related to vocational activities. That a boy or girl is born 
on a farm or in a rural community is no guarantee whatever 
that he or she is well fitted to engage in agriculture or that 
agricultural education is well fitted to his aptitudes and 
interests. Where a sufficiently large group of pupils is 
found interested and capable in any single occupation, that 
occupation should be represented by its related vocational 
subjects in the school whenever economically possible. 
Thus, from the viewpoint of desirability, industrial subjects 
have their place in a dominantly rural community and agri- 
cultural subjects have their place in an industrial community. 
From the viewpoint of practicability (depending on numbers 
and tastes), such non-local vocations will be represented in 
few schools. The two factors of local needs and individual 
needs must always clash to some extent, and for this there 
is no remedy other than the establishment of special sec- 
tional (e.g.. State or county) vocational schools or the de- 
velopment of part-time cooperative education. 

^ Smith, H. B., Establishing Industrial Schools^ p. 15. For this whole 
matter see his excellent chapter i. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 583 

11. Clerical and Commercial Subjects 

255. The scope of clerical and commercial education. 
The overlapping of clerical and commercial occupations has 
led to two errors in the administration of clerical and com- 
mercial education in the secondary school: (1) the error of 
conjSning clerical education to preparation for business life, 
and (2) the error of restricting commercial education to the 
clerical arts in the majority of schools. The latter is by far 
the more serious error. So-called "commercial courses" are 
commonly restricted to subjects to which tradition has at- 
tached the name "commercial subjects" — stenography, 
typewriting, bookkeeping, "business arithmetic" — together 
with some elements of office and business practice. In the 
larger schools, particularly in special "commercial schools," 
are frequently found forms of instruction in foreign lan- 
guages (German, French, and Spanish) adapted to supposed 
or real commercial needs, special types of science instruction 
adapted to the same ends, some instruction in design and 
related arts with application to commercial activities, ele- 
mentary commercial law, economic or industrial history, 
economics, etc. It will be noted that most of those courses — 
the courses forming the backbone of " commercial education" 
■ — are almost limited to instruction in the clerical arts or 
''office" activities and to certain general knowledges, little 
or no provision being made for other important forms of 
commercial activity. This appears to be wrong for reasons 
implied in the following considerations: (1) office work and 
clerical occupations in general engage but a relatively small 
proportion of strictly commercial workers, probably not more 
than about fifteen per cent of all business employees. ^ On 
the other hand, other business activities engage a relatively 

^ Thompson, F. V., Commercial Education in Public Secondary Schools, 
chap. VI. 



584 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

large proportion of commercial workers, e.g., retail selling 
has been estimated to engage more than one third of all 
business employees. Clerical training is very unsatisfactory 
for such workers. (2) Those who leave school before the 
completion of the secondary-school course and who enter 
business in large numbers, for the most part engage in other 
phases of business activity than the clerical. Their needs 
are not well met by clerical courses. (3) Stenography and 
typewriting are passing more and more into the hands of 
women or girls and at present a relatively small proportion 
of clerical positions emphasizing those subjects are occupied 
by men or boys. (4) Many clerical positions have little or 
nothing to do with strictly commercial work, e.g., civil-serv- 
ice positions. 

Recent theory bids fair to institute two important changes 
in the administration of clerical and commercial education 
in the secondary school: (a) by recognizing that not all 
clerical instruction is limited to commercial preparation; 
(b) by extending the scope of commercial education so as to 
include instruction dealing with merchandizing, selling, and 
store service. 

256. Aims of clerical and commercial subjects. Mani- 
festly the primary aims and values of the study of clerical 
and commercial subjects in the secondary school are to be 
determined by their direct and specific contributions toward 
the attainment of the economic- vocational aim of secondary 
education. Clerical and commercial activities are obviously 
activities in which a large proportion of secondary-school 
pupils will later participate. If the theses formulated in 
Chapters IX and X of the book are sound it follows that the 
secondary school should provide preparation for those activ- 
ities of life in which the pupils will later engage and for which 
other social agencies do not provide adequate training. 
Clerical and commercial occupations are activities in which 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 585 

secondary-school pupils do later engage in large numbers. 
It remains to consider whether other social agencies, includ- 
ing those vocations themselves, provide adequate training. 
In Chapter IX it was shown that social institutions other 
than the school have tended to decrease the vocational 
stimuli and opportunities which they formerly afforded. 
As affecting the field of clerical and commercial education 
the following facts may be considered. (1) The demand for 
clerical efl&ciency has developed with great rapidity within 
the past few decades, especially in the non-commercial fields 
and those fields on the borderline between secretarial and 
business activities. (2) Within recent years the relatively 
simple organization of commercial activities has given way 
to a very complex form of organization; e.g., note the char- 
acter of business organization in the large department store 
and the large wholesale house. (3) Commercial competi- 
tion has developed tremendously, even to the extent of rami- 
fied international competition. (4) In recent years less and 
less opportunity has been offered for *' learning the business " 
and apprenticeship has tended to disappear. (5) Greater 
sub-division of labor and increased specialization has per- 
meated the business field. (6) In constantly increasing pro- 
portions girls and women have engaged in commercial 
activities. (7) Home and community life have tended to 
afford less and less opportunity for commercial training. 
(8) Compulsory school-attendance laws and child labor laws 
have postponed the age at which children may enter com- 
mercial life : hence, (9) the school has taken the boy and girl 
out of business and thus prevented him from securing even 
that amount of early commercial training which participa- 
tion in business might afford. These facts emphasize the 
value and necessity of adequate instruction in clerical and 
commercial subjects in the secondary school. 
- The aims of clerical and commercial education in the 



586 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

secondary school must be the development of direct and 
specific vocational abilities in the related activities of life 
in so far as they may be developed in the school. Any 
attempt to emphasize indirect values, e.g., *' values for men- 
tal training," involve questionable psychological theories and 
are likely to diminish the primary vocational values which 
should be dominant. 

257. The place of clerical arts in the program. Two rea- 
sons for the relatively successful provision of instruction in 
the clerical arts in the secondary school are probably to 
be found in the facts: (1) that those arts, while perhaps pre- 
dominantly commercial, have nevertheless spread to several 
related fields not primarily commercial or on the borderline 
between commerce and other fields, e.g., public service, the 
office of the physician, the lawyer, etc., and the factory office; 
(2) that certain of the clerical arts deal with abilities even 
less restricted in their applications, e.g., stenography, type- 
writing, bookkeeping, etc. The clerical arts, therefore, have 
somewhat less limited and less contingent values than some 
strictly commercial arts whose values are limited to com- 
mercial vocations and contingent on special activities. 

Recognition of the somewhat extended values of certain 
clerical arts has sometimes led to a much mistaken emphasis 
on the part of some writers and teachers. Thus importance 
appears to be attached to " mental discipline " wrongly by 
Moran: ^ 

Stenography, when properly taught and thoroughly mastered, 
has even greater value, considered from a purely educational stand- 
point. To become even a moderately successful stenographer one 
must have training along several lines, each of which has large 
educational value. These are as follows: (1) It compels one to 

1 Moran, S. A., pp. 403-04 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High-School 
Education. Cf. Bartholomew, W. E., "Fundamental Aims in the Teaching 
of Bookkeeping," Proceeddngs of the National E^ducation Associaiion (1916), 
pp. 362-65. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 587 

think quickly and accurately. It is of great value to any one to be 
thoroughly awakened mentally and to have acquired power to 
think clearly. (2) The scientific study and practice of stenography 
compels the development of greater ability to hear things accu- 
rately. The inability of the average high school and college student 
to hear all that he should hear and hear it accurately is really appall- 
ing. Stenography, more than any other study, will very largely 
overcome this almost universal weakness. (3) Mastering the 
technic of memorizing is an especially important feature which re- 
sults from the thorough training of this subject. I do not know of 
any other subject which affords an equally valuable and specific 
training. (4) The most important mental training resulting directly 
from this study is the development of ability to concentrate the 
whole mind upon the work in hand. . . . Since the study of stenogra- 
phy is especially valuable in developing such power, it seems that 
there should be no question as to the advisability of introducing 
this subject in every high school, not only as a part of the com- 
mercial course, but also as a regularly disciplinary study. 

However far one may desire to extend the study of 
stenography or any other clerical art on the basis of its 
direct values, he certainly cannot be justified by modern 
psychological theory in making any such sweeping claims 
for the study of stenography or other clerical subject on 
the basis of such ** disciplinary " values as those claimed by 
the writer above quoted. The problem of disciplinary values 
was discussed in Chapter XI. It cannot be considered here 
further than to point out that the theory of faculty psychology 
implied in the above quotation has long since been aban- 
doned by the psychologist. Where such important direct 
values manifestly exist it is folly to shift the instruction in 
clerical arts from the field of direct to indirect values. 

258. Analysis of clerical occupations. Some conception 
of the relative importance of various occupations involving 
the clerical arts may be gained from the census figures for 
1910. They are presented in the following table. 



588 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Table CXLI. Clerical Occupations according to the 

1910 Census* 



Occwpations 



Agents, canvassers, and collectors ..... 

Agents 

Canvassers 

1 Collectors 

Bookkeepers, cashiers, and accountants 

Clerks (except clerks in stores) 

Shipping clerks 

Other clerks 

Messenger, bundle, and office boysf 

Bundle and cash boys and girls 

Messenger, errand, and office boys . . 

Stenographers and typewriters 

Total 



Total 



105,127 
50,785 
18,595 
35,747 

486,700 

720,498 

80,353 

640,145 

108,035 
10,866 
97,169 

316,693 



1,737,053 



Male 



48,495 
13,980 
33,850 

299,545 

597,833 

78,192 

619,641 

96.748 

4,274 

92,474 

53,378 



1,143,829 



Female 



8,802 
2,290 
4,615 
1,897 

187,155 

122,665 

2,161 

120,504 

11,287 
6,592 
4,695 

263,315 



593,224 



* Thirteenth Census Re-port (1910), vol. iv, p. 94. 
t "Except telegraph and telephone messengers." 



This classification presented in the census returns is in 
many ways very unsatisfactory, but serves at least to indi- 
cate the relative prominence of bookkeeping, stenography, 
and typewriting in occupational life, as well as the relative 
importance of " clerkship.*' Of special interest is the number 
of clerks — about 42 per cent of all engaged in clerical occu- 
pations, 52 per cent of all men and 21 per cent of all women 
engaged in those occupations. If to the numbers given be 
added clerks separately classified by the Census Bureau as 
** clerks in stores " the group of *' clerks " assumes even greater 
importance. An analysis of their activities is needed as a 
basis for proper clerical instruction in the secondary school. 

259. Non-clerical commercial subjects. As an introduc- 
tion to the consideration of non-clerical commercial subjects 
which are or should be in the program of studies of the sec- 
ondary school we may examine the analysis of business 
occupations made by the Census Bureau. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 



589 



Table CXLII. Trade Occupations according to the 
1910 Census * 



Occupations 



Bankers, brokers, and money lenders 

Clerks in storest 

Commercial travelers 

Decorators, drapers, and window dressers . . 

Deliverymen 

Floorwalkers, foremen, and overseers 

Inspectors, gaugers, and samplers 

Insurance agents and officials 

Laborers — in yards and warehouses 

Laborers, porters, and helpers in stores . . . . 

Newsboys 

Proprietors, officials, and managers % 

Real estate agents and officials 

Retail dealers 

Salesmen and saleswomen f 

Undertakers 

"Wholesale dealers, importers, and exporters 
Other pursuits (semi-skilled) 

Total 



All 



105 

387 

163 
5 

229 
20 
13 
97 
81 

102 
29 
22 

125 
1,195 

921 
20 
61 
41 



804 
183 
620 
341 
619 
724 
446 
964 
,123 
333 
708 
362 
,862 
029 
130 
,734 
,048 
,640 



3,614,670 



Male 



103,170 

275,589 

161,027 

4,902 

229,469 

17,649 

11,685 

95,302 

80,450 

98,169 

29,435 

21,352 

122,935 

1,127,926 

663,410 

19,921 

50,123 

34,068 



3,146,582 



Female 



2,634 

111,594 

2,593 

439 

150 

3,075 

1,761 

2,662 

673 

4,164 

273 

1,010 

2,927 

67,103 

257,720 

813 

925 

7,572 



468,088 



* Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv, p. 93. 

t "Many of the 'clerks' in stores evidently are ' salesmen and saleswomen.' " 

t Not otherwise specified. 

Of the business occupations here listed those engaging as 

large a proportion of men or women as five per cent are as 

follows : 

Table CXLni§ 



Occupations 



Clerks in stores 

Deliverymen 

Retail dealers 

Salesmen and saleswomen, . . . 
Commercial travelers 

Total for five occupations 



All 
{per cent) 



10.7 

6.3 

33.1 

25.5 

4.5 



80.1 



Male 
{per cent) 



8.8 

7.3 

35.8 

21.1 

5.1 



78.1 



Female 
(per cent) 



23.8 

14. 3 

65.1 

0.5 



93.2 



§ Compiled from Table CXLII. 

Of particular interest here are the occupations of " clerks 
in stores," *' salesmen and saleswomen " (the two groups are 
not clearly to be differentiated), and " retail dealers." Second- 



590 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ary education has in the past recognized preparation for 
those occupations in the most general way only, emphasiz- 
ing the clerical arts and *' general business knowledge " sides 
of their activities. The arts of buying, selling, and handling 
merchandise have been all but neglected in the commercial 
education provided by the secondary school. Hence the 
emphasis placed at the present time by specialists in com- 
mercial education on " merchandizing, selling, and store 
service." Those specialists have, however, tended to over- 
emphasize occupations in large commercial organizations, 
such as department store occupations, at the expense of 
occupations in "small business." The fact that over thirty- 
three per cent of all business men and women (35.8 per cent 
of the male and 14.3 per cent of the female), exclusive of 
clerical employees, are " retail dealers " should serve to guard 
us against such possible overemphasis. The need of com- 
mercial education for the men and women who become 
" retail dealers " is indicated by the tremendous " business 
mortality" of that class — failures due in large part to the 
lack of the most elementary business knowledge and train- 
ing. 

260. ** General subjects " modified. Within the past few 
years the tendency has gradually developed to provide 
special forms of instruction in " general subjects " adapted 
to supposed or real commercial and clerical ends. In this 
category fall such studies as commercial English, commer- 
cial arithmetic, commercial or economic geography, indus- 
trial history, commercial German, French, and Spanish, 
commercial science, commercial design, commercial law, 
business economics, etc. The varying character of courses 
given the titles *' commercial English," " commercial arithme- 
tic," etc., makes it impossible properly to evaluate them. 
Some are doubtless quite legitimately given a place in the 
program of studies. Others are of rather doubtful status or 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 591 

of questionable value in spite of the validity of some ele- 
ments involved. Thus courses in "commercial English" 
and " commercial *' or '* industrial " history have been 
much questioned for the secondary school. Of particular 
interest is the tendency found in some cases to substitute 
for commercial pupils courses in " commercial English '* 
and " industrial history " for the courses in English and in 
social science provided for other pupils. Whatever argu- 
ments may be adduced for courses in *' commercial English '* 
and " commercial " or " industrial history " for commercial 
pupils, there can be no justification for allowing such voca- 
tional subjects to take the place of courses in English and 
social science designed primarily to attain the non-voca- 
tional, i.e., the social-civic and the individualistic-avoca- 
tional, aims of secondary education. " Commercial English " 
and " industrial history," having the same ends in view as 
other commercial and clerical subjects, i.e., the attainment 
of vocational efficiency, must be placed in competition with 
them, not with subjects whose primary purposes have to do 
with the social-civic and individualistic-a vocational aims. 

Of special interest too is the tendency which is becoming 
prominent to emphasize the commercial values of modern 
foreign languages. It is altogether probable that too much 
attention may be paid to such courses as *' commercial Ger- 
man," "commercial French," or "commercial Spanish," to 
the detriment of more important forms of commercial educa- 
tion. It must be recognized that in this country peculiar con- 
ditions exist greatly limiting the commercial values of the 
study of foreign languages. (1) It must be recognized that, 
while American commerce and business have been brought 
into close contact with foreign peoples, the number of com- 
mercial positions affected is insignificant, and that the rela- 
tively small number of business positions offering oppor- 
tunity for, much less requiring, the use of a foreign language 



592 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

makes an ability to use it relatively unimportant. (2) It 
must also be recognized that the heterogeneity of our Amer- 
ican population provides a relatively large number of bi- 
lingual men and women with whom it is impossible for the 
school-taught American boy or girl to compete in securing 
commercial positions calling for an ability to use a foreign 
language. For the majority of commercial pupils the direct 
values of the study of a foreign language are relatively 
insignificant. 

261. Criticism of present commercial education. Provi- 
sion for commercial education which is or should be made 
in the secondary school affects three groups of subjects: 
(1) clerical-commercial arts; (2) merchandising arts; (3) an- 
cillary subjects. 

(i) Clerical-commercial subjects: Better provision is made 
for these subjects than for any other group. Errors involve 
(a) the tendency to limit clerical instruction to business 
fields, and (b) the tendency to consider clerical instruction 
suitable for the majority of business occupations. 

(^) Merchandising subjects: Subjects falling under this 
category at present found in the secondary school are to 
be catalogued much as the snakes of Ireland or the ships of 
the Swiss navy — there are none. The point has been em- 
phasized sufficiently in preceding sections that provision 
for non-clerical business education is an imperative necessity 
demanded by modern business conditions and soimd educa- 
tional theory. Until provision is made for such subjects 
commercial education in the secondary school must be far 
from adequate. 

(3) Ancillary subjects: The present tendency to adapt 
almost all the traditional subjects of the secondary-school 
program to commercial ends is equally dangerous for com- 
mercial-vocational education and for other forms of second- 
ary education. A careful re-analysis of the values of many 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 593 

subjects of study which have been given a commercial turn 
in some schools is necessary. It is probable that for the most 
part they will be found to be highly limited and highly 
contingent. 

III. Industrial Subjects 

262. Meaning and scope of industrial education. Indus- 
try in its broadest sense may include practically all forms of 
economic activity. In its narrower sense it is restricted to 
those activities which involve the manipulation of raw 
materials and their conversion into finished products 
through manufacture and mechanical processes. Industrial 
education, therefore, in the corresponding narrower sense, 
is that division of education whose primary purpose is the 
development of industrial efficiency in manufacture and 
mechanical processes. Elementary education is concerned 
in an indirect way only with industrial education. The 
college or higher technical school is the field for higher 
technical training. The field of industrial education in the 
secondary school is, therefore, training for the development 
of vocational efficiency in those industrial activities between 
those limited to unskilled labor and those demanding a 
higher degree of technical knowledge and training than 
can be acquired in the secondary school. 

Until within the past few years industrial education in its 
proper form has been all but neglected in the American 
secondary school. It has been pointed out already that the 
manual training movement and the establishment of a few 
" technical high schools " failed to accomplish the real ends 
of industrial education, the former by taking the direction of 
" general discipline," " general manual dexterity," or " cul- 
ture," and the latter by becoming merely preparatory schools 
to higher technical colleges. Meanwhile European countries 



594 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

established relatively effective education in the industrial 
arts and some beginning of real industrial education was 
made as the result of private initiative in this country. 
Slowly the movement toward industrial education has found 
its way to a limited extent into the public school system. 
Legislation providing for the establishment of industrial 
schools for boys and girls began in Massachusetts in 1906, 
followed by legislation in Wisconsin in 1907, and by legisla- 
tion in several other States later. Notwithstanding rather 
extensive development in educational theory and notwith- 
standing the somewhat comprehensive legislation provided 
in many States it cannot be said that the development of 
industrial education in the secondary school has as yet pro- 
ceeded far. Relatively few secondary schools at the present 
time offer any form of industrial education, and in still fewer 
secondary schools has anything like adequate provision 
been made for it. Much may be expected, however, in the 
near future from the passage of the Smith-Hughes Federal 
Law in 1917. 

263. Conditions emphasizing industrial education. Many 
factors have combined to emphasize the need for industrial 
education in the secondary school in this country. They are 
in the main those factors outlined briefiy above in this 
chapter under three heads : (1) developments in educational 
theory, (2) developments in the secondary-school population, 
and (3) developments in other social institutions. Certain 
specific factors, however, deserve special consideration here, 
(a) Modern psychological and educational theory postu- 
lates that " general education " is very inadequate prepara- 
tion for efficiency in industrial activity. (6) It likewise postu- 
lates that the values, character, and aims of instruction 
should be determined by the character of the activities in 
which pupils will later participate, (c) It further postulates 
that there are wide ranges of individual differences in the 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 595 

vocational interests and aptitudes of secondary-school 
pupils, (d) Within the past three decades increasing large 
numbers of boys and girls destined for vocational activity 
in the industries have entered the secondary school, (e) 
Studies in retardation and elimination have sIiotvti that the 
majority of pupils entering the secondary school leave after 
one, two, or three years of secondary education. Such boys 
and girls enter the industries in large numbers. (/) Informal 
education in the home and community life has lost many 
of the stimuli and opportunities for industrial education. 
(g) The relative proportion of individuals engaged in indus- 
trial pursuits has gradually increased since 1880.^ (h) The 
constantly increasing division of labor has tended to prevent 
those engaging in industrial activities from securing in 
industry itself broad training in the trades and crafts. 
(i) The development of the factory system of industry has 
removed many other stimuli and opportunities for industrial 
training, (j) The apprentice system which formerly afforded 
valuable industrial education has tended to disappear, only 
118,964 apprentices being accounted for in the entire coun- 
try in the reports of the 1910 census, (k) With other changes 
in industrial organization the relations between employer 
and employee have radically changed with the result that the 
capitalist employer is concerned with the immediate eco- 
nomic productivity of the employee rather than with the 
broad training of the beginning employee. (I) International 
competition in industry has tended to demand a higher de- 
gree of industrial efficiency in this country, (m) Changes 
in the parts played by abundant natural resources and in- 
dustrial efficiency have created a demand for the increase 
of the latter to offset a relative decrease in the former, (n) 
The increased mobility of labor has tended to discourage 
attempts on the part of employers to train a body of broadly 
1 Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv, p. 41. 



596 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

expert workmen and workwomen who may leave his employ 
at any moment after he has gone to the expense of their 
industrial education, (o) Compulsory school-attendance 
laws and child-labor laws have removed children from indus- 
try where they could receive even such industrial training 
as industry provides, (y) The school has tended more and 
more to occupy boys and girls at ages when they formerly 
engaged in industrial activities. 

264. Values and aims of industrial subjects. As in the 
case of all subjects of study whose primary aims and con- 
trolling purposes involve the development of vocational effi- 
ciency, the values of industrial subjects in the program of 
the secondary school are to be determined by their direct and 
specific contributions to the economic- vocational aim of sec- 
ondary education. It must be recognized that the prepara- 
tion of the worker is one of the necessary aims of secondary 
education. It must be recognized that a large proportion 
of secondary-school pupils will later engage in industrial oc- 
cupations. It must be recognized that other social agencies 
than the school, including the industries themselves, do not 
provide adequate training for those who participate in indus- 
trial activities. Recognition of those three facts renders 
imperative provision for industrial education in the second- 
ary school. It should be noted in this connection, however, 
that acceptance of the validity of claims for industrial sub- 
jects in the program of the secondary school does not ne- 
cessarily imply that those studies are to be conducted in 
the secondary-school building. The question whether the 
studies should be provided under school conditions in the 
secondary-school building or in the industries themselves 
by cooperation between the school authorities and industrial 
firms is a matter not of the secondary-school program but 
of organization and administration. It will be considered 
in Chapter XXI. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 



597 



265. Analysis of industrial occupations. As a basis for 
evaluation of some phases of industrial education in the 
secondary school we may consider the distribution of in- 



Table CXLIV. Number of Persons ten Years of Age and 

OVER engaged in PRINCIPAL MANUFACTURING AND MeCHANI- 

\ CAL Industries, classified by Sex (1910)* 



Occupations 



Apprentices 

Bakers 

Blacksmiths, forgemen, and hammermen 

Brick and stone masons 

Builders and building contractors 

Carpenters 

Compositors, linotypers, and typesetters 

Dressmakers and seamstresses (not in factory) 

Electricians and electrical engineers 

Engineers (stationary) . . _. 

Firemen (except locomotive and fire department) . . 

Foremen and overseers (manufacturing) 

Laborers (not otherwise specified) 

Clay, glass, and stone industries 

Food industries 

General and not specified laborers 

Helpers in building and hand trades 

Lumber and furniture industries 

Metal industries 

Textile industries 

All other industries 

Machinists, millwrights, and toolmakers 

Managers and superintendents (manufacturing) 

Manufacturers and officials 

Milliners and millinery dealers 

Moulders, founders, and casters (metal) 

Painters, glaziers, varnishers, enamelers, etc 

Plumbers and gas and steam fitters 

Semi-skilled operatives (not otherwise specified) 

Cigar and tobacco factories 

Clay, glass, and stone industries 

Clothing industries 

Food industries 

Lumber and furniture industries 

Metal industries 

Printing and publishing 

Shoe factories 

Textile industries 

All other industries 

Sewers and sewing machine operators (factory) . . . . 

Shoemakers and cobblers (not in factory) 

Tailors and tailoresses 

Tinsmiths and coppersmiths 

All others in this division 

Total in manufacturing and mechanical industries 



Total 



118,964 
89,531 
240,519 
169,402 
174,422 
817,120 
127,589 
449,342 
135,519 
231,041 
111,248 
175,098 

154,826 
82,015 
869,478 
65,431 
317,244 
627,714 
87,146 
385,852 
488,049 
104,210 
256,591 
127,906 
120,900 
337,355 
148,304 

151,519 

88,628 
144,607 

88,834 
167,490 
438,063 

67,469 
181,010 
650,260 
463,655 
291,209 

69,570 
204,608 

59,833 
679.310 



10,658,881 



Male 



103,369 
84,752 
240,488 
169,387 
173,573 
817,082 
113,538 
1,582 
135,427 
231,031 
111,248 
155,358 

152,438 

75,691 

853,679 

65,352 

313,228 

518,935 

71,107 

350,917 

487,956 

102,748 

251,892 

5,459 

120,783 

334,814 

148,304 

79,947 

79,167 

95,715 

62,312 

154,292 

394,175 

32,808 

121,744 

298,221 

318,221 

60,003 

68,788 

163,795 

59,809 

668,766 



8,837,901 



Female 



16,595 

4,779 

31 

15 

849 

38 

14,051 

447,760 

92 

10 



19,740 

2,388 

6,324 

15,799 

79 

4,016 

8,779 

16,039 

34,935 

93 

1,462 

4,699 

122,447 

117 

2,541 



71.572 

9,461 

48,892 

36,522 

13,198 

43,888 

34,661 

59,266 

352,039 

145,434 

231,206 

782 

40,813 

24 

10,544 



1,820,980 



• Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv, p. 63. Cf. the more detailed analysis on 
pp. 91-94 of that volume. 



598 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

dustrial workers according to their principal occupations. 
In Table CXLIV are presented figures showing the number 
of persons engaged in each of forty-two principal industrial 
occupations in 1910. 

From this table it will be seen at once that the clothing 
and textile trades engage the great majority (nearly two 
thirds) of all females in industrial pursuits — dressmaking, 
etc., 24.6 per cent; millinery, 6.7 per cent; sewing, 12.7 per 
cent; tailoring, 2.2 per cent; laborers in textile industries, 
0.9 per cent; semi-skilled operatives in textile industries, 
19.3 per cent; total, 66.4 per cent. 

The industrial occupations of males are naturally far 
more diverse. Nevertheless if in considering the data given 
in Table CXLIV we examine fairly specific occupations and 
ignore males listed under the headings "general and not 
specified laborers," " laborers in all other industries," " semi- 
skilled operatives in all other industries," " all others in this 
division," and " manufacturers and officials " (these together 
composing 27.7 per cent of the entire group), we find but 
nine separately listed occupations representing only the six 
general fields of metal-working, wood-working, machinist 
trades, painting trades, stationary engineering, and textile 
trades, engaging each as large a proportion as two per cent 
of all industrial male workers — carpentry, 9.2 per cent; 
laborers in lumber and furniture industries, 3.5 per cent; 
blacksmiths, etc., 2.7 per cent; laborers in metal industries, 
5.9 per cent; semi-skilled operatives in metal industries, 
4.5 per cent; machinists, 5.5 per cent; painting, etc., 3.8 per 
cent; stationary engineers, 2.6 per cent; semi-skilled opera- 
tives in textile industries, 3.4 per cent; total, 41.1 per cent 
of all male industrial workers. Grouped according to the 
six general fields the figures are: wood- working industries, 
12.7 per cent; metal- working industries, 13.1 per cent; 
machinist trades, 5.5 per cent; painting trades, 3.8 per cent; 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 599 

stationary engineers, 2.6 per cent; textile industries, 3.4 
per cent. 

Further light may be shed on this problem by considering 
the industrial occupations of persons classified on a somewhat 
different basis as follows : 

Table CXLV* 

7. Building trades: builders and building contractors, brick and stone 
masons, laborers not otherwise specified in building and hand trades, paint- 
ers, glaziers, vamishers, etc. (building), paper hangers, plasterers, plumb- 
ers, gas- and steam-fitters, roofers and slaters, structural iron-workers 
(building) — all, 1,799,242; male, 1,781,316; female, 17,926. 

IL Metal-working trades: blacksmiths, forgemen, and hammermen, 
boiler-makers, filers, grinders, buffers, and polishers (metal), furnace- 
men, smelterers, heaters, pourers, etc., jewelers, watchmakers, goldsmiths, 
silversmiths, tinsmiths, coppersmiths, laborers not otherwise specified in 
iron and steel uidustries, laborers in other metal industries, moulders, 
founders, and casters (metal), rollers and roll hands (metal), semi-skilled 
operatives not otherwise specified in iron, steel, and other metal industries, 
annealers, and temperers (metal) — total, 1,570,448; male, 1,512,171; 
female, 58,277. 

III. Clothing trades: dressmakers and seamstresses (not in factory), 
laborers in clothing industries not otherwise specified, laborers in shoe 
factories not otherwise specified, milliners and millinery dealers, semi- 
skilled operatives not otherwise specified ia clothing industries, semi- 
skilled operatives not otherwise specified in shoe factories, sewers and 
sewing-machine operators (factory), shoemakers and cobblers (not in 
factory), tailors and tailoresses, dyers — 'total, 1,502,819; male, 543,858; 
female, 958,961. 

IV. Wood-working trades : cabinet-makers, carpenters, laborers and semi- 
skilled operatives not otherwise specified in lumber and furniture uidustries 
— total, 1,343,746; male, 1,326,486; female, 17,260. 

V. Textile trades : laborers and semi-skilled operatives in textile indus- 
tries not otherwise specified — total, 737,406; male, 369,328; female, 
368,078. 

VI. Machinist trades: machinists, millwrights, and tool-makers, loom- 
fixers, mechanics not otherwise specified, mechanical engineers — total, 
550,604; male, 550,469; female, 135. 

VII. Food industries : bakers, butchers and dressers (slaughterhouse), 
laborers and semi-skilled operatives not otherwise specified in food indus- 
tries, laborers and semi-skilled operatives not otherwise specified in 
cigar and tobacco industries, laborers and semi-skilled operatives not other- 

* Compiled from data given on pages 91 f. of the Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv. 



600 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

wise specified in liquor, beverage industries, millers of grain, flour, feed, 
etc. — total, 518,154; male, 391,538; female, 126,616. 

VIII. Engineers (stationary, and firemen) : exclusive of locomotive and 
fire department — total, 342,289; male, 342,279; female, 10. 

IX. Printing trades: compositors, linotypers, and typesetters, electro- 
typers, stereotypers, and lithographers, engravers, pressmen, laborers, 
and semi-skilled operatives not otherwise specified in printing and publish- 
ing industries — total, 248,656; male, 196,813; female, 51,843. 

X. Ceramic trades : laborers and semi-skilled operatives not otherwise 
specified in clay, glass, and stone industries — total, 243,454; male, 231,605; 
female, 11,849. 

XI. Electric trades : electricians and electrical engineer^, laborers not 
otherwise specified in electric light and power plants, laborers and semi- 
skilled operatives not otherwise specified in electric supply factories — ■ 
total, 179,806; male, 167,127; female, 12,679. 

XII. Supervisory and executive occupations : manufacturers and officials, 
managers and superintendents (manufacturing), foremen and forewomen 
(manufacturing) — total, 535,899; male, 509,998; female, 25,901. 

XIII. All other trades: total, 967,394; male, 811,544; female, 155,850. 
I XIV. Apprentices: total, 118,964; male, 103,369; female, 15,595. 

Table CXLVI indicates the relative numbers of per- 
sons engaged in the various industries on the basis of the 
preceding classification. 

In spite of the wide variety of specialized occupations 
falling within each of the general groups considered, in spite 
of the variation in different localities, in spite of the fact 
that the total number of workers engaged in any industry 
does not show the proportion of somewhat skilled workers, 
and in spite of the obviously inadequate information afforded 
by the figures presented. Tables CXLIV, CXLV, and 
CXLVI show that the building, metal-working, clothing, 
wood-working, textile, and machinist trades engage by far 
the greatest proportion of industrial workers — 70.4 per 
cent of all industrial workers, 68.9 per cent of male, and 
78.1 per cent of female. The major specialized and skill- 
demanding trades involved in those general trades must, 
therefore, form the backbone of industrial education in the 
secondary school for the country at large. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 



601 



Table CXLVI * 



Oroup 



I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

XIV 



Trades at abova classified 



Building trades 

Metal-working trades . 

Clothing trades 

Wood-working trades . 

Textile trades 

Machinist trades 

Food industries 

Engineers and firemen 

Printing trades 

Ceramic trades 

Electric trades 

Supervisory positions . 
All other industries . . . 
Apprentices 

Total 



Per cent of all en- 
gaged in manufac- 
turing and mechan- 
ical industries 



All 
(per 
cent) 



16.9 

14.7 

14.1 

12.6 

6.9 

5.2 

4.9 

3.2 

2.3 

2.3 

1.7 

5.0 

9.1 

1.1 



100.0 



Male 
(per 
cent) 



20.2 

17.1 

6.2 

15.0 

4.2 
6.2 
4.4 
3.9 
2.2 
2.6 
1.9 
5.8 
9.2 
1.1 



100.0 



Female 
(per 
cent) 



1.0 
3.2 

52.7 
0.9 

20.3 

(?) 

6.9 

(?) 
2.8 
0.6 
0.7 
1.4 
8.6 
0.9 



100.0 



Per cent of all en- 
gaged in gainful 
occupations 



All 
(per 
cent) 



4.6 
4.2 
3.9 
3.5 



9 
4 
3 
9 
7 
0.7 
0.5 
1.4 
2.6 
0.3 



27.9 



Male 
(per 
cent) 



5.9 
5.0 
1.8 
4.4 
1.2 
1.8 
1.3 
1.1 
0.7 
0.8 
0.6 
1.7 
2.7 
0.3 



29.3 



Female 
(per 
cent) 



0.2 
0.7 
11.9 
0.2 
4.6 

(?) 
1.6 

(?) 
0.6 
0.2 
0.2 
0.4 
1.9 
0.2 



22.7 



* Compiled from data given in Table CXLIV and from data given by the Thirteenth Census 
Report (1910), pp. 91 jf. 

266. Variation in industrial conditions. While the main 
fields of industrial activity mentioned in the preceding para- 
graph will in all probability suggest the principal lines of 
industrial education for the country at large, differing con- 
ditions in various localities must affect the specific trades 
within those principal divisions and in many cases empha- 
size trades engaging a relatively small proportion of industrial 
workers throughout the country but engaging a relatively 
large proportion of industrial workers within a particular 
district or community. Thus in Waterbury, Connecticut, 
more than one half of the industrial workers are semi- 
skilled or skilled workers in the metal industries; in Tampa, 
Florida, more than one half are skilled (few) or semi-skilled 
(many) workers in the cigar and tobacco industries; in 
Woonsocket, Rhode Island, more than one half are semi- 



602 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

skilled (many) or skilled (few) workers in the textile in- 
dustries; in Lynn, Massachusetts, more than one half are 
semi-skilled (many) or skilled (few) workers in the shoe in- 
dustries; etc. On the other hand, in the majority of com- 
munities of such size as to warrant and permit any consid- 
erable attention to industrial education in the regular public 
secondary school, industries are noticeably varied. In any 
case an " industrial survey " to ascertain the relative impor- 
tance of various trades exemplified in local industries and 
to determine the numbers of semi-skilled or skilled work- 
ers employed is a necessary preliminary to the selection of 
industrial occupations which should be represented by 
vocational subjects in the secondary school of any commu- 
nity. ^ 

267. The selection of industrial subjects. Some general 
principles governing the selection of vocational subjects 
were outlined in section 254. They apply with special force 
to industrial education in the secondary school. A number 
of factors, however, invite particular attention. 

(1) The problem of industrial education involves special 
difficulties in the small school where pupils who are likely 
to engage in industrial activities are too few to permit the 
economical introduction of industrial subjects. Apparently 
the only solution to that problem is the establishment of 
sectional industrial or generally vocational schools or the 
introduction of part-time cooperative education. In other 
small but somewhat larger schools in somewhat larger 
communities where local industrial activities are fairly im- 
portant but rather varied and where the number of pupils 
likely to engage in industrial occupations is large enough 
to warrant the introduction of some industrial education, 
the problem of selection of industrial subjects becomes 
acute. In such communities any attempt to meet the needs 
* Cf . Report of the Minneapolis Survey for Vocational Education* 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 603 

of special local industries, except in so far as they may repre- 
sent generally important trades, must be discouraged, and 
industrial subjects must be chosen which represent occupa- 
tions having a steady and general demand throughout the 
state or country. 

(2) A newly established local industry or an industry for 
a time rapidly growing frequently creates a demand for 
skilled workers which is but temporary. Care must be taken 
that industrial education be provided for those occupations 
which have a fairly steady and general demand; e.g., in many 
communities the manufacture of various war supplies has 
received a tremendous impetus during the European war. 
The demand for skilled munition workers is at present 
greatly exaggerated and cannot long remain at its present 
high status. 

(3) In many industries there is a constant change in the 
workers employed and the period of service in certain trades 
is so short as to preclude opportunity for satisfactory indus- 
trial training related to those occupations in the secondary 
school. 

This constant change, we have already seen, is true of the work- 
ers in our canning factories and of those in knitting mills and mills 
producing low-grade cotton textiles. Similar instability is found 
among the workers on the simpler processes in the making of har- 
vesting machinery and in one instance a foundry employing three 
thousand men reported twenty-six hundred yearly changes. Where 
men and women are continually shifting from one line of employ- 
ment to another, the community cannot afford to finance their 
vocational training until a study of the trade shall reveal that there 
are skilled processes requiring special training which this shifting 
group has never received and which might be expected to hold 
them more uniformly in one industry.^ 

(4) In different industries the proportions of skilled, semi- 
skilled, and unskilled laborers vary greatly. Thus the indus- 

^ H. B. Smith, Establishing Industrial Schools, p. 13. 



604 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

trial workers of Minneapolis in 1915 were distributed as 
follows: 

Table CXLVII. Distribution of Skilled, Semi-Skilled, 
AND Unskilled Workers in the Manufacturing and Me- 
chanical Industries of Minneapolis, 1915 * 



Industries 



Building trades 

Metal industries 

Clothing ;•,•■• 

Supervisors and technicians 

Lumber and furniture 

Food and grain 

Chemical and drug 

Printing and engraving 

Textile 

Boots, shoes, and leather. , . 

Clay, glass, and stone 

Tobacco 

Liquor and beverage 

Jewelry 

All other industry 

Total 

Per cent 



Skilled 


Semi-skilled 


Laborers 


Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


9,379 


2 






5,494 


61 


5,324 


2 


1,743 


52 


839 


7 


1,236 


4,792 


144 


134 


3 


• • • 


5,310 


175 


• . - 








1,272 


15 


1,379 


42 


1,347 


io" 


1,031 


57 


851 


477 


613 


17 


2,405 


6 


76 


45 


272 


3 


1,184 


62 


294 


266 


9 


2 


2 




185 


684 


48 


13 


307 


2 


440 


121 


18 


4 


150 




283 


4 


278 


1 






244 


99 


4 


2 






203 


8 


126 


1 


150 


4 


16 


1 






701 


20 


1,110 


764 


821 


4 


28,451 


5,137 


6,968 


2,697 


9,872 


125 


53.4 


9.7 


13.1 


5.0 


18.6 


0.2 



Total 



14,936 

7,967 

6,309 

5,485 

4,065 

3,046 

2,807 

1,817 

932 

892 

716 

349 

338 

171 

3 420 

53,250 
100.00 



* Re-port of the Minneapolis Survey for Vocational Education, Bulletin no. 21 of the Na- 
tional Society for the Promotion of Vocational Education, p. 15. 



Those trades or parts of trades only which offer some oppor- 
tunity for the utilization of somewhat skilled workers in 
fairly large numbers should be represented by related indus- 
trial courses in the secondary school. 

(5) Some trades are of such a character that related in- 
dustrial training cannot be provided within the secondary 
school building and under ordinary school conditions. 
Provision can be made for industrial education in such 
fields only through part-time work, continuation schools, 
or specially organized institutions. 

268. ** General subjects " modified. The practice initi- 
ated in special type vocational schools of adapting " general 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 605 

subjects" to special supposed or real industrial needs has 
tended to spread to the modification of such subjects for 
the same purpose in the regular secondary school. Notwith- 
standing the fact that something may legitimately and 
economically be done in this direction there is danger that 
artificial differentiation may result in damage both to in- 
dustrial education and to other educational needs. In 
general much of the comment made in section 260 dealing 
with clerical and commercial education applies here also. 
For instance it must be recognized that courses in English 
and social science exist in the secondary-school program for 
purposes which are not primarily vocational. It must be 
remembered that the worker is also to be a citizen and an 
individual. The threefold nature of his activities cannot be 
neglected: neither can one group of subjects or one kind of 
education lead effectively to all three ends at the same time. 
"Industrial English" and " industrial history," however le- 
gitimately they may find a place in that part of the school 
program dealing specifically with industrial education, can 
never take the place of the English and social science de- 
signed for other purposes. They must, if justified at all, 
be supplements to and not substitutes for related courses 
designed to contribute toward the social-civic and indi- 
vidualistic-avocational aims of secondary education. 

IV. Agricultueal Subjects 

269. The scope of agricultural education. Although some 
attention has been paid to agriculture in certain of the 
academies before 1850, the present vocational movement 
began with the establishment of special agricultural high 
schools in connection with agricultural colleges (first in 
Minnesota in 1888) . The movement somewhat later spread 
to special sectional agricultural high schools but not until 



606 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

within the past ten or fifteen years was agricultural educa- 
tion introduced into the regular public secondary schools 
to any noteworthy extent. Previous to 1906 there were but 
few high schools (excepting agricultural high schools) giving 
instruction in agriculture.^ In 1912-13 there were about 2300 
high schools (2128 ordinary high schools) in the country 
teaching agriculture. ^ In 1914-15 such instruction was 
afforded in 4390 public secondary schools and 83,573 pub- 
lic secondary-school pupils were enrolled in agricultural 
courses. ^ Favorable legislation granting State and National 
aid to agricultural education will in all probability greatly 
extend its scope within the next few years, giving greater 
and greater importance to the agricultiu*al subjects in the 
secondary-school program of studies. 

The recency of agricultural education in the public sec- 
ondary schools has prevented the development of many 
stable policies or practices, particularly since much of the 
work in agriculture varies somewhat according to geograph- 
ical factors. Lack of even the roughest standardization 
renders impossible analysis of practice affecting specific 
subjects for agricultural education. 

270. Factors emphasizing agricultural education. As is 
the case with other forms of vocational education several 
factors have combined to emphasize agricultural education 
in the secondary school at the present time. The more 
important of those factors may be summarized briefly 
here, (a) Modern educational theory cannot recognize the 
claim that a "general education" provides satisfactorily 
for the life which the agriculturalist must lead. (6) Mod- 
ern educational theory postulates that the values, character, 
and aims of instruction should be determined by the activ- 

^ Davis, B. M., Agricultural Education in the Public Schools, p. 119. 

2 Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1913), vol. i, 
p. 213. 

3 Ibid. (1916), vol. II. p. 497. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS C07 

ities In which the pupils will later participate, (c) Within 
recent years boys and girls whose destinies in life are found 
on the farm have entered the secondary school in increasing 
numbers, (d) Within a relatively short period of time the 
parts played in production by abundant natural resources 
and agricultural efficiency have changed to a marked degree. 
If production is to keep pace economically with demand, 
the inefficient agricultural work of the past must give way 
to a higher degree of efficiency in order to offset the relative 
decrease in abundant natural resources, (e) In the field of 
animal husbandry in particular the decrease in the amount 
of land which may economically be devoted to stock raising 
and grazing demands far greater efficiency in order to offset 
that loss. (/) Competition in agricultural production has 
constantly increased as increased transportation facilities 
have extended the field of competition even to international 
proportions, (g) The increased application of science to agri- 
culture and animal husbandry has tended to demand a higher 
degree of knowledge and skill for the successful pursuit of 
those occupations, (h) The increased scientific and technical 
knowledge and skill demanded for agricultural occupations 
has rendered the ordinary life of the boy or girl on the farm 
less and less an adequate preparation for efficiency in those 
occupations, (i) Compulsory school-attendance laws and 
child-labor laws have removed children from early appren- 
ticeship on the farm where they formerly received early 
agricultural training, (j) The school has tended more and 
more to occupy boys and girls at ages when they formerly 
were engaged in agricultural activities, (k) There has been 
a very noticeable tendency for large numbers of boys and 
girls to leave the farm and engage in urban occupations. 
The education which has heretofore been afforded the 
country boy and girl has encouraged this migration by pro- 
viding the kind of education in elementary and secondary 



608 " PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

school which gave little preparation for farm life and much 
for city life. (Z) More than nine tenths of the public second- 
ary schools in the country are found in communities of less 
than eight thousand inhabitants and considerably more than 
one half of the secondary-school pupils in the country are 
found in the small-town or rural communities.^ 

271. Aims and values of agricultural education. The 
aims of the study of agricultural subjects in the secondary 
school are obviously those emphasizing the economic- 
vocational aim of education. Accordingly the values of 
various agricultural subjects in the program are to be de- 
termined by the contributions which those subjects may 
make to the economic-vocational efficiency of individuals 
who will be engaged primarily in agricultural occupations. 
'Those values are direct and specific, though limited for the 
most part to pupils who will participate primarily in agri- 
cultural activities. In agricultural education, therefore, 
indirect and general aims must be subordinated to direct 
and specific aims. Emphasis on "disciplinary values " (them- 
selves questionable) is of questionable validity when brought 
into such sharp contrast with the direct and specific voca- 
tional values of agricultural study in the secondary school. 
Hence may be questioned the emphasis by Robison: ^ 

Reasoning ability not due to heredity results largely from re- 
peatedly forming and correcting judgments. Casual examination 
of the materials of high school agriculture show that they offer 
abundant opportunities for doing this. 

272. Analysis of agricultural occupations. For purposes 
of securing a basis for agricultural education in the second- 
ary school an examination of census statistics is of relatively 

1 Cf. Section 32. 

2 Robison, C. H., p. 384 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), Eigh School Edu- 
cation. Quoted with the permission of the publishers, Charles Scribner's 
Sons. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 



609 



little value. Nevertheless the figures presented below will 
at least emphasize the fact that the great majority of agricul- 
tural workers is composed of ''farmers" and "farm labor- 
ers" whose occupations demand a rather general agricul- 
tural training rather than training in one limited phase of 
agricultural activity. 

Table CXLVIII. Distribution of Agricultural Workers 

IN 1910* 



Occupations 



Dairy farmers 

Dairy farm laborers 

Farmers 

Farm laborers 

Foremen, farm, dairy, gar- 
dens, etc. . 

Gardeners, florists, fruit grow- 
ers, etc 

Garden, greenhouse, etc., labor- 
ers 

Stock herders, drovers, feeders, 
etc 

Stock raisers . . v 

Other agricultural and animal 
workers 



Total. 





Numbers 




Per cents 


All 


Male 


Female 


All 


Male 


61,816 

35,014 

5,865,003 

5,975,057 


69,240 

32,237 

5,607,297 

4,460,634 


2,576 

2,777 

257,706 

1,614,423 


0.6 

0.3 

47.2 

48.1 


0.6 

0.3 

62.9 

42.0 


47,591 


39,826 


7,765 


0.4 


0.4 


139,255 


131,421 


7,834 


1.1 


1.2 


133,927 


126,453 


7,474 


1.1 


1.1 


62,975 
52,521 


62,090 
60,847 


886 
1,674 


0.5 

0.4 


0.6 
0.5 


44,238 


40,408 


3,830 


0.4 


0.4 


12,417,397 


10,610,453 


1,806,944 


100.0 


100.0 



0.1 

0.2 

83.8 

14.3 

0.4 

0.4 

0.4 

0.1 
0.1 

0.2 

100.0 



* From p. 91 of the Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv. In the table given above are 
omitted figures for fishermen, oystermen, lumbermen, etc. Figures for female farm laborers 
are probably somewhat imreUable. 



The most noteworthy fact emerging from these figures 
is that "farmers" and "farm laborers" comprise more than 
95 per cent of all agricultural and animal-husbandry work- 
ers. The "average farmer" engages in a wide variety of 
agricultural activities, including dairy work, poultry hus- 
bandry, and other forms of animal husbandry, crop raising, 
orcharding, etc. While specialization in agricultural occu- 
pations is constantly increasing the great majority of 
agricultural workers must engage in general farm work. 



610 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

The preparation of such persons must, therefore, cover a 
relatively wide range of agricultural activities. In many 
cases the failure of the small farmer is a direct result of his 
inability or unwillingness to combine several different but 
more or less supplementary phases of agricultural and 
animal-husbandry activities. 

273. Variation in agricultural activities. While some of 
the elements entering into agricultural education in the 
secondary school remain relatively constant as far as geo- 
graphical factors are concerned, other important elements 
must vary widely according to local conditions of soil, 
climate, topography, population distribution, and other 
factors. (1) Certain phases of agricultural and animal- 
husbandry occupations may legitimately receive special 
attention in States like Arizona where stock raising, etc., 
engages the activity of more than one quarter of those 
engaged in agricultural or animal-husbandry pursuits, in 
parts of California where more than eighteen per cent of all 
agricultural workers are engaged in horticulture, fruit- 
growing, nurseries, etc., on Long Island where the majority 
of farmers are engaged in truck-farming. (2) Special phases 
of agricultural pursuits may be emphasized according to 
soil and climatic or general topographical conditions; e.g., 
note the importance of dairy husbandry in southwestern 
Washington, of cattle and horse raising in central Washing- 
ton, and of grain production in eastern Washington. The 
selection of certain kinds of agricultural education in the 
secondary school must be determined to some extent by 
predominant local agricultural occupations. The general 
principles governing such selection have been outlined in 
previous sections. 

274. The adaptation of " general " subjects. As with 
other forms of vocational education there has developed 
a tendency to modify instruction in several " general " sub- 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL AETS 611 

jects in the secondary-school program to the needs of special 
groups of pupils whose manifest destinies involve primarily 
agricultural occupations. For the most part such modifica- 
tion and adaptation has taken place in connection with the 
natural sciences, especially in connection with the biological 
sciences. The important basic bearing of the biological 
sciences on agriculture and the fact that the secondary- 
school population in rural communities tends to be roughly 
homogeneous as far as its vocational needs are concerned 
appear to give justification to the practice of directing the 
natural-science work for agricultural pupils along lines ap- 
propriate to the pursuit of agriculture and animal hus- 
bandry. As yet little attempt has been made to modify 
other " general " subjects for the purposes of agricultural 
education and the objections raised to "vocational English" 
and '* vocational social science" in connection with clerical, 
commercial, and industrial education need not here be 
considered. 

V. Domestic Subjects 

275. Scope and field of domestic education. Under the 
general title of "domestic subjects" are here considered 
those subjects related to the various activities which have 
developed in the fields of housekeeping and homemaking. 
In this category fall such subjects as are commonly listed 
imder the titles "household arts," "household sciences," 
and many "practical arts for girls" — covering the selec- 
tion, purchase, preparation, and serving of food; the se- 
lection, purchase, preparation, and care of clothing; the 
selection, purchase, use, care, and arrangement of house- 
hold apparatus; the care and training of little children, care 
for household sanitation and family health, etc. 

As is the case with the practical arts in general those 



612 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

dealing with the home and family have been almost totally 
neglected in the secondary school until within the past few 
years and even at present receive very inadequate atten- 
tion. Within the past decade or two domestic subjects 
covering a relatively wide range of domestic activities have 
been introduced in some of the larger secondary schools. 
In smaller schools the tendency has been to introduce ele- 
mentary courses in cooking and sewing. In many secondary 
schools no domestic subject has yet found its way into the 
program of studies. 

The late development of instruction in domestic subjects 
has not yet permitted the establishment of many stable 
policies and practices and domestic education must at 
present be considered as in its experimental and formative 
stage. No exact analysis of existing domestic subjects can 
be made where the materials, organization, and methods of 
teaching them differ widely in different schools. 

276. Factors emphasizing domestic education. The 
primary factor emphasizing the importance of domestic arts 
in the program of the secondary school is, of course, recog- 
nition of the fact that the majority of girls will later be en- 
gaged predominantly in the activities of homemaking and 
housekeeping. It is true that in the past, even more than 
in the present, the home has been the sphere of woman's 
activity. Despite the fact, however, that women have to 
an ever-increasing extent engaged in activities outside the 
home, and in spite of the fact that many activities have been 
removed from the home, several factors have tended to 
emphasize the importance of secondary-school training in 
the domestic arts at the present time. Among those factors 
may be mentioned the following, (a) The education hereto- 
fore emphasized in the secondary school has to a consider- 
able extent tended to guide the girl away from activities 
peculiar to the home, (b) Compulsory school-attendance 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 613 

laws and other factors have tended to bring more girls into 
the secondary school and to hold them there for a longer 
time. The secondary school has made such demands on the 
time and energy of girls that the amount of domestic train- 
ing in the home has been noticeably curtailed, (c) Greatly 
extended opportunities for girls and women earning a liveli- 
hood in industry have decreased the amount of relatively 
cheap ** hired help " in the home, thereby tending to some 
extent to offset the effect of labor-saving devices in the 
home and to increase the need for efficiency in domestic 
work, (d) Changed conditions of family life (e.g., the with- 
drawal of the mother from household work to factory work 
or other work outside the home) have in many cases ren- 
dered traditional methods of transmitting household arts 
from mother to daughter inadequate, (e) The modern scien- 
tific study of food values and nutrition of sanitation and 
hygiene has lent new meaning to household work. (/) The 
increased cost of many staple food commodities (especially 
meats) has emphasized the need for economical efficiency 
in the selection, purchase, and preparation of food, (g) The 
preparation of many articles of food and clothing outside 
the home has both simplified and complicated the econom- 
ical and effective management of the household; e.g., note 
the dangers of adulterated food, the waste of shoddy cloth- 
ing, deception in the sale of commodities, and the knowledge 
required to safeguard the family health and the family purse 
against such dangers, (h) The conditions of modern life, 
especially in the city and among foreigners, call for read- 
justments in home and family life that are fraught with 
danger unless guarded against. In this readjustment the 
secondary school must play its part. 

277. Females in various occupations. According to the 
Census Report for 1910 there were 8,075,772 females ten 
years of age or over engaged in " gainful occupations " (i.e.. 



614 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

not in their own homes). Of that number 637,086 were 
between ten and fifteen years of age, and 1,847,606 between 
sixteen and twenty years of age, leaving 5,591,086 females 
twenty-one years of age or over engaged in such occupations. 
These constituted 22.8 per cent of all females twenty-one 
years of age or older in 1910.^ The remaining 18,964,668 
women were for the most part engaged in occupations in 
their own homes. In addition a large proportion of those 
engaged in gainful occupations to some extent participated 
in domestic activities. 

Analysis of figures presented in the census returns under 
the title of " domestic and personal service " is of relatively 
little value for the present purpose. Statistics there pre- 
sented indicate that of women engaged in occupations thus 
classified were for the most part employed as servants 
(51.7 per cent), laundresses (23.6 per cent), housekeepers 
(professionally private, boarding and lodging 12.4 per cent) 
— total 87.7 per cent.^ The total number engaged in those 
occupations (2,530,846 in all " domestic and personal serv^- 
ice ") is, however, relatively insignificant, when compared 
with the number engaged in domestic occupations in their 
own homes and excluded from the above-presented census 
returns. It is to be noted moreover that many phases of 
domestic activity are essentially the same whether carried 
on in the individual's own home or for hire in other situa- 
tions, so that domestic arts education in the secondary 
school may prepare almost equally well for the majority of 
domesticities wherever involved. 

278. Values of domestic education for girls. The chief 
activities of the great majority of women will always be 
found in the home. Even for the relatively small proportion 
of girls whose " profession " or " trade " will lie in activities 
outside the home, participation in some of the major activ- 

1 Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv, p. 73. ^ Jhid., p. 94. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 615 

ities of the home is inevitable, and the contingency is high 
that sooner or later every woman will be the central figure 
controlling the destinies of the home and family. For these 
reasons it is probable that some form and some amount of 
domestic education should constitute a part of the second- 
ary education of all girls. Beyond doubt important respon- 
sibihties for homemaking must rest on the secondary-school 
boys who will later become partners in homemaking. It 
is, therefore, imperative that some preparation for such 
activities as are therein involved should be found in their 
education in the secondary school. Nevertheless it is prob- 
able that any attempt to enroll secondary-school boys in any 
specifically organized domestic subject would wreck itself 
on the reefs of antagonistic interests and attitudes. In all 
likelihood, therefore, such homemaking education as may 
profitably be provided for secondary-school boys must be 
provided in connection with civics, vocational arts, and 
possibly science and economics. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Make a study of State provision for vocational education in America. 

2. Compare provision for vocational education in America and in Ger- 
many, France, England, or Switzerland. 

3. Investigate the attitude of labor organizations to vocational education. 

4. In any high-school canvas the occupations of pupils' parents. 

5. In any high-school canvas the vocational interests of pupils in various 
grades. 

6. For any industry or part of an industry make an analysis of the knowl- 
edges and skills involved according to the length of time ordinarily 
required for their acquirement. 

7. In any city examine the "working certificates" granted to boys and 
girls leaving school before the completion of the full period of com- 
pulsory attendance. What occupations do they enter? 

8. Consider the pupUs of any one "class" who entered the first year of the 
high school five or six years ago. Analyze the occupations which they 
have entered, classifying them according to the stage at which the 
different groups left school. 

9. Make a study of existing apprentice systems in this country. 



616 PHINCIPLES OF SECONDAKY EDUCATION 

10. Make a study of the occupations found in a large department store. For 
which can the secondary school profitably provide vocational training? 

11. Make a study of the costs of various forms of vocational and practical 
arts education in the secondary schools. 

.12. Make a study of present provisions for practical and vocational arts 
education in the secondary schools of any one State. 

13. In any high school determine to what extent pupils leaving school either 
before or after graduation enter occupations closely related to voca- 
tional studies which they have taken in the secondary school. 

14. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of providing voca- 
tional studies in the secondary school itself and of providing for part- 
time vocational training in the occupation itself? 

15. Debate this proposition: "Secondary education should be restricted to 
liberal studies because they can be provided nowhere else. Vocational 
training should not be provided in the secondary school because it can 
be secured better in the vocation itself." 

16. To what extent do pupils' vocational interests change during the sec- 
ondary-school course? 

17. Discuss the possible effects of the Smith-Hughes BiU on secondary 
education in the United States. 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

I. General: 

Ayres, L. P., Constant and Variable Occupations and their Bearing 

on Problems of Vocational Education. (Russell Sage Foundation.) 
Brown, J. S., et al., "The Place of Vocational Subjects in the High- 
School Curriculum," Fourth Yearbook of the National Society for the 

Scientific Study of Education, part ii, pp. 9-52. 
Bloomfield, M., The Vocational Guidance of Youth. 
Carlton, F. T., Education and Industrial Evolution. 
Davenport, E., Education for Efficiency, especially chaps, i-vn. 
Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D., The Administration of Public 

Education in the United States, chap. xxii. 
Gillette, J. M., Vocational Education. 
Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, chaps, xi- 

xin. 
Leavitt, F. M., "Some Sociological Phases of the Movement for 

Industrial Education," American Journal of Sociology, vol. 

XVIII, pp. 352-60. 
Leavitt, F. M., "The Relation of the Movement for Vocational and 

Industrial Education to the Secondary Schools," School Review, 

vol. XIX, pp. 85-95. 
Lodge, T. H., "Vocational Subjects in the Secondary School," 

Educational Review, vol. xxxix, pp. 333-41. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 617 

National Education Association, Report of Committee on Voca- 
tional Education, Vocational Secondary Education, Bureau of 
Education Bulletin (1916) no. 21. 

Snedden, D., The Problem of Vocational Edtication. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chaps, vi-x. 

United States Commissioner of Education, Reports. 
II. Commercial and clerical education : 

Bartholomew, W. E., "Fundamental Aims in the Teaching of 
Bookkeeping," Proceedings of the National Education Association 
(1916), pp. 362-65. 

Brett, G. P., "The Need of Commercial Education," Independent, 
vol. Lxxn, pp. 728-30. 

Hartog, P. J., "Commercial Education in the United States," 
(Board of Education for England and Wales), Special Reports on 
Educational Subjects, vol. xi. 

Herrick, C. A., Meaning and Practice of Commercial Education. 

Johnson, J. F., in Report of the United States Commissioner of Edu- 
cation (1913), vol. I, pp. 235-48. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, Report of the Committee on 
Business Education, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. rx. 

Stevens, B. M., Boys and Girls in Commercial Work, Cleveland 
Education Survey. 

Thompson, F. V., Commercial Education in Public Secondary Schools. 

Thompson, F. V., in Reports of the United States Commissioner of 
Education (1915), vol. i, pp. 279-93; (1916), vol. i, pp. 219-36. 
IIL Industrial education: 

Amett, L. D., "Educational Outlook based on Occupations,** 
Pedagogical Seminiary, vol. xii, pp. 334-38. 

Cariton, F. T., Education and Industrial Evolution. 

Cleveland Education Survey: Shaw, F. L., The Building Trades; 
Bryner, E., The Garment Trades; Lutz, R. R., The Metal Trades; 
Shaw, F. L., The Printing Trades; Lutz, R. R., Wage-Earning and 
Education. 

Dean, A. D., The Worker and the State. 

Hanus, P. H., Beginnings in Industrial Education. 

Harvey, L. D., "The Need, Scope, and Character of Industrial 
Education in the Public School System," Proceedings of the Na- 
tional Education Association (1909), pp. 49-70. 

Johnston, C. H., "The Social Significance of Various Movements 
for Industrial Education," Educational Review, vol. xxxvii, pp. 
160-80. 

Kerschensteiner, G., Organization und Lehr plane der obligatorischen 
Each- und Fortbildungschiden fiir Knaben in Miinchen. 



618 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Massachusetts Commission on Industrial Education, Reports. 

National Council of Education, Report of the Committee on the Place 
of Industries in Public- Education, Proceedings of the National 
Education Association (1910), pp. 652-59, 680-788, especially 
pp. 731-66. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganization 
of Secondary Education, Report of the Committee on Industrial 
Arts, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education Bulle- 
tins. 

Paquier, J. B., L' Enseignement professional en France. 

Smith, H. B., Establishing Industrial Schools. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. vn. 

United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin (1906) no. 67, Conditions 
of Entrance into the Principal Trades. 

United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin no. 162, Vocoi' 
tional Education Survey of Richmond, Virginia. 

United States Commissioner of Labor, Seventeenth Annual Report 
(1910), Trade and Technical Education. 

United States Commissioner of Labor, Twenty-fifth Annual Report 
(1910), Industrial Education. 

Vanderlip, F. A., Business and Education. 

Wright, CD., The Apprenticeship System in its Relation to Industrial 
Education, Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1908) no. 6. 
IV. Agricultural education: 

American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teach- 
ing, Agricultural Education in Secondary Schools, Bureau of 
Education, Bulletin (1912) no. 6; Agricultural Instruction in 
Secondary Schools, Bureau of Educaticai, Bulletin (1913) no. 
14. 

Bailey, L. H., ** Education by Means of Agriculture," Cyclopedia of 
American Agriculture, vol. iv, pp. 467-77. 

Betts, G. H., New Ideals in Rural Schools. 

Bricker, G. A., The Teaching of Agriculture in the High School. 

Cubberley, E. P., Rural Life and Education. 

Davenport, E., Education for Efficiency. 

Davis, B. M., Agricultural Education in the Public Schools. 

Giles, F. M., "The Teaching of Agriculture in the High School," 
School Review, vol. xvii, pp. 154-65. 

Knapp, S. A., "Shall Agriculture be Taught in the Secondary 
Schools of the United States?" Southern Educational Review, 
vol. IV, pp. 53-64. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, Report of CommiUee on Agriculture, 
Bureau of Education Bulletin. 



PRACTICAL AND VOCATIONAL ARTS 619 

National Society for the Study of Education, "Agricultural Edu- 
cation in Secondary Schools," Eleventh Yearbook, part ii. 

Robison, C. H., Agricultural Instruction in the Public High Schools 
of the United States. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. viii. 

United States Commissioner of Education, Reports. 
V. Domestic arts education: 

Camp, K. B., "Some Phases of the Scientific and Social Value of 
Domestic Science in Education," Proceedings of the Eastern Man- 
ual Training Association (1903), pp. 84-90. 

Carlton, F. T., Education and Industrial Evolution, pp. 174-80. 

Condit, E. C, "The Economic Value of Domestic Science," Atlantic 
Educational Journal, vol. iii, pp. 24-28. 

Day, L. G., "The Place of Domestic Science in the Public School 
Curriculum, Proceedings of the Wisconsin's Teachers' Association 
(1907), pp. 75-78. 

Gladfelter, L. M., "The Strongest Plea for Domestic Science," 
Proceedings of the Eastern Manual Training Association (1901), 
pp. 88-94. 

Kinne, H., "The Three Values of Domestic Science and Art in 
the Schools," Proceedings of the Eastern Manual Training Asso- 
ciation (1904), pp. 57-69. 

Kinne, H., "Vocational V^lue of the Household Arts," Proceedings 
of the National Education Association (1910), pp. 55-59. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, Report of Committee on Household 
Arts, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

Norton, A. P., "The Social Value of Domestic Science," Proceedings 
of the Eastern Manual Training Association (1904), pp. 83-96. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap, xxiii. 

Snow, M. S., "The Place of Domestic Economy in the Curriculum," 
Proceedings of the Western Draudng and Manual Training Asso- 
ciation (1908), pp. 40-44. 

United States Commissioner of Education, Reports. 
VI. Manual training: 

Bailey, H. T., Instruction in the Fine and Manual Arts in the United 
States, Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1909) no. 6. 

Chamberlain, A. H., "The Place and Policy of the Manual Training 
High School," Proceedings of the Eastern Manual Training Asso- 
ciation (1905), pp. 10-20. 

Crane, W. I., "A Plea for the Education of the Hand," Proceedings 
of the Eastern Manual Training Association (1902), pp. 27-39. 

Crawshaw, F. D., "What Can the High Schools Do Better to Help 
the Industries?" Manual Training Magazine, vol. xiii, pp. 193- 
204. 



620 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Davis, B. M., "The Present Status of Manual Training in Its Rela- 
tion to Industrial Education in the Rural Schools," Manual 
Training Magazine, vol. xi, pp. 456-61. 

Dean, A. D., "Relation of Manual Training in Public Schools to 
Industrial Education and Efficiency," Craftsman, vol. xiv, 
pp. 74-81. 

Fitch, J. G., Educational Aims, pp. 145-76. 

Morrison, G. B., "The Present Status and Future of Manual Train- 
ing in the High School, "Fourth Yearbook of the National Society 
for the Scientific Study of Education, part ii, pp. 18-37. 

Noyes, W., "The Ethical Values of the Manual and Domestic 
Arts," Manual Training Magazine, vol. xi, pp. 201-13. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. x. 

Usherwood, T. S., "The Place of Manual Training in the Curriculum 
of the Secondary School," Manual Training, vol. ix, pp. 136-39, 
158-64. 

Williams, S. H., "The Educative Value of Manual Training," 
Manual Training Magazine, vol. xi, pp. 36-45, 158-67, 252, 260. 

Extended bibliographies: 

Commercial education: Bureau of of Education, Bulletin (1913) no. 22, 
pp. 64-65; Herrick C. A., Meaning and Practice of Commercial Educa- 
tion, pp. 350-70. 

Industrial education: Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1913) no. 22, 
pp. 7 ff; Technical Education, Bulletin no. 6, published by Teachers 
College, Columbia University; Richards, C. R., Selected Bibliography 
on Industrial Education, Bulletin no. 2 of the National Society for the 
Promotion of Industrial Education. 

Agricultural education: Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1912) no. 10; 
Davis, B. M. Agricultural Education in the Public Schools; Robison, 
C. H., Agricultural Education in the Public School of the United'States. 

Domestic arts education: Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1912) no. 10. 

Manual training: Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1913) no. 22, pp. 79-83. 

General bibliography of vocational education: Bureau of Education, 
Bulletin (1913) no. 22. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE PLACE OF "ESTHETIC ARTS IN THE PROGRAM 

I. General. Considerations 

279. Historical position in the program. The aesthetic 
arts as educational instruments occupied a position in prim- 
itive and early civilized society which modern educators can 
with difficulty realize. The best example of their use is 
found among the Athenians, in whose scheme of education 
the {esthetic arts were made the fundamental vehicles of 
intellectual, religious, moral, social, and physical training. 
Aristotle mentions four branches of education customarily 
afforded : reading and writing, gymnastic, music, and (some- 
times) drawing or painting. Of these the first constituted 
but preliminary training and the last occupied a doubtful 
position, so that gymnastic and music (in the Greek sense) 
comprised by far the major part of Greek education. Thus 
Plato: 1 

Education has two branches, — one of gymnastic, which is 
concerned with the body, and the other of music, which is designed 
for the improvement of the soul. 

The whole choral art is also in our view the whole of education • 
and of this art, rhythms and harmonies, having to do with the 
voice, form a part. . . . And the movement of the body and the 
movement of the voice have a common form which is rhythm, but 
they differ, in that one is gesture, and the other song. . . . And 
the sound of the voice which reaches and educates the soul, we 
have ventured to term music. . . . And the movement of the body, 
which, when regarded as an amusement, we termed dancing; when 
pursued with a view to the improvement of the body, according 
to the rules of art, may be called gymnastic. 

^ Plato, The Laws, Book vii and Book vi. 



622 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Gymnastic, in the Greek sense of the term, had as one of 
its chief purposes the aesthetic aim of developing harmony 
and grace of bodily movement : for the accomplishment of 
this end dancing was one of the principal educational means. 
Music, in the Greek sense of the term, included music in the 
modern sense (including vocal and instrumental music), 
poetry, the mimetic arts, and literature in general. In this 
connection it must be remembered that early Greek litera- 
ture was almost exclusively poetic, that with the Greeks 
poetry was always related to music, and that poetry and 
song were the vehicles of social and religious traditions and 
ideals intimately connected with their life. The important 
fact to be noted is that music thus embodied racial ideals 
and traditions in a form which lent highly emotionalized 
value to the content. The Greeks, probably more than any 
other people, recognized the importance of emotional ele- 
ments in determining the unconscious behavior of individ- 
uals and society. No race has ever made more effective use 
of the sesthetic arts as instruments of education. After the 
time of the Greeks the sesthetic arts practically disappeared 
from the program of education, not to reappear until the 
end of the eighteenth century or even later, and then as 
very inadequate educational instruments. The one excep- 
tion to this statement is to be found at times in connection 
with the sesthetic side of literature. 

In the Latin grammar school of the American colonies 
the sesthetic arts had no place, except in so far as they may 
have been related to literary study. Doubtless drawing 
and music first found their way into the American second- 
ary school through the academy. Thus at least as early as 
1837 drawing, vocal music, instrumental music, and archi- 
tecture had been introduced into some academies in New 
York State. In some schools of uncertain status absurdly 
elaborate provision was made for sesthetic arts in the edu- 



THE .ESTHETIC ARTS CSS 

cation of girls as indicated by the offerings of the Armston 
School of the late eighteenth century. 

In the public high school drawing first made its appear- 
ance in the Girls' High School of Boston in 1826 when map- 
drawing and the principles of perspective were introduced. 
In 1829 " linear drawing " was made an elective': subject in 
the English Classical (High) School of Boston. The develop- 
ment of drawing as a study in the public secondary school 
was of slow growth, however, until mechanical drawing 
received impetus through the manual training and technical 
high-school movement in the last quarter of the nineteenth 
century. Recently, the arts of form, design, and color have 
received constantly increasng attention both because of 
their relation to the industrial and household arts and be- 
cause of increased recognition of their importance jper se. 

Doubtless vocal music of an informal character early was 
found in the public high school. Its first mention as a spe- 
cific subject of study is found in the High School of North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, in 1837, when nearly all girls in that 
school were reported to be engaged in its study. Through- 
out the nineteenth century its development was slow and 
sporadic, though eventually it was made a regular part of 
high-school work in the form of rather ineffective chorus 
work by the entire high-school pupil body once or twice a 
week in the majority of schools. Within recent years there 
has been manifest a distinct tendency to provide far more 
effective instruction in music in the public high schools and 
in some notable instances to provide instruction not only in 
vocal music but also in instrumental music. 

On the whole, and with the possible exception of litera- 
ture, instruction in the aesthetic arts throughout the nine- 
teenth century was never effective as far as the secondary 
school was concerned. In mechanical drawing alone was 
effective instruction provided and there the emphasis was 



6U ' PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

placed on that subject for its industrial and technical values 
primarily. The past decade, however, has given promise of 
distinct improvement. 

280. Present status. The aesthetic arts at present are 
manifested in the American secondary school in connection 
with numerous subjects of study found in the program: 
music, literature, drawing, painting and design, manual 
arts, clothing arts, household arts, physical training — sub- 
jects ranging all the way from those in which the aesthetic 
element is dominant to those in which it may be subordi- 
nated almost entirely to other elements. Thus music has 
its place in the secondary-school program largely for its ses- 
thetic values. Literature appears to share its values more 
evenly between the aesthetic and the social. Drawing, 
painting and other phases of design are on the borderline 
between aesthetic arts and practical arts, swinging now 
to one side now to the other according to the school and 
teacher. In manual arts, clothing arts, and household arts 
the purposes involved are dominantly utilitarian, the 
aesthetic element varying in prominence according to the 
materials employed and the teaching. Physical training is 
dominated by the conception of health values to which the 
aesthetic elements are subordinated. 

It must be recognized, in spite of noteworthy exceptions 
in certain schools, that the American secondary school 
minimizes the aesthetic training of pupils, save possibly in 
connection with literature. Music, while regularly finding 
a place in the program of studies, is commonly limited to 
relatively ineffective group work in which the entire school 
body participates (theoretically) one or two periods per 
week. Few secondary schools in the cOi.iitry at present 
afford opportunity for effective training in music as one of 
the studies entitled to attention similar to that afforded 
other subjects of study. The arts of design (drawing, paint- 



THE AESTHETIC AKTS 625 

ing, etc.) at present manifest a tendency toward rapid 
development, especially in connection with industrial train- 
ing and the practical arts. This development has not, how- 
ever, taken place in the majority of smaller schools. 

281. Fundamental principles involved. Two fundamental 
principles are involved in determining the values of the 
study of the sesthetic arts in the secondary school: (1) it 
must be recognized that the sesthetic arts represent the 
results of original tendencies of human nature to manifest 
its emotional states in satisfying form; (2) it must also be 
recognized that the results of the expression of such emo- 
tional states tend to spread similar emotions to others and 
thus to have social bearing.^ Hence, as Dewey states: 

Viewed both psychologically and socially, the arts represent 
not luxuries and superfluities but fundamental forces of develop- 
ment. 

By far the major portion of the secondary-school ciu'- 
riculum tends to emphasize the intellectual development and 
to neglect or to minimize the emotional development of the 
pupils. Such a situation cannot be justified as long as the 
emotions play such a prominent part in life as they do and 
should. The skeptic concerning the important part played 
by the sesthetic arts in modern life may well consider the 
erotic and dithyrambic music and song which attracts the 
secondary-school pupil and others, the character of modern 
dancing, the abundance of neurotic literature which is the 
common pabulum of secondary-school pupils in book and 
magazine, the character of the popular " musical comedy," 
and the blatant and gaudy magazine cover which passes for 
art. If interested in municipal affairs and community life, 
he may well compare conditions in communities where art 

* Cf . Dewey, J., pp. 579-80 of Monroe, P. (Editor), Principles of Second- 
ary Education. 



6e<5 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

is valued with those where art is decried or neglected. In 
America less than in most countries do the ordinary sur- 
roundings, apart from nature, afford stimuli to aesthetic 
appreciation and production. In America less than in most 
countries have traditions and ideals been perpetuated in 
sesthetic forms which might enhance their intrinsic value. 
In America more than in most countries should the school 
aim to do what the artificial environment does not — de- 
velop the sesthetic arts. '- 
282. Values of the sesthetic arts. For the majority of 
pupils the basic values of the study of sesthetic arts in the 
secondary school are doubtless to be found in the contribu- 
tions which that study may make to the individualistic- 
avocational aim of education — in the development of 
ability worthily to utilize leisure, properly to enjoy life, and 
to express personality. It must be recognized, however, 
that the sesthetic arts are so closely related to other fields 
of study and activity that it becomes impossible in most 
cases to separate them other than for purposes of analysis. 
The social and sesthetic elements are so closely interwoven in 
the study of literature that it is a serious mistake to attempt 
their dissociation. The sesthetic element separated from the 
content element of literature becomes a barren abstraction. 
Its content separated from the sesthetic element loses that 
emotional appeal which gives literature much of its im- 
pelling force in determining thought, attitude, and action. 
Thus too the sesthetic arts of design are so intricately in- 
volved in the industrial arts, in the clothing arts, and in the 
domestic arts that the two elements should not be dissoci- 
ated. No sharp line of distinction can properly be drawn 
between the sesthetic arts and the practical arts. Any 
attempt to do so must result in great loss to both. In physi- 
cal exercise also we are beginning to realize that the sesthetic 
has its place. The schoolboy and the bleacherite recognize 



THE .ESTHETIC ARTS 687 

and appreciate *' form " in athletics and, especially for girls, 
dancing has begun to find a recognized place in physical 
exercise. 

It is, of course, a fact that every subject of study and most 
major activities of life in which the secondary-school pupil 
is likely later to engage involve some elements of aesthetics 
and have their emotional sides. Failure to develop those 
elements is a pedagogical error affecting secondary education 
to-day. 

n. LiTERATUEE 

283. .Esthetic art and literature. By far the most com- 
monly and most extensively studied aesthetic art in the 
secondary-school program is literature. In Chapter XII 
the values of the study of literature were considered with 
particular reference to content values. It was there sug- 
gested that the fundamental values of the study arose from 
its contribution to the social-civic aim and the individual- 
istic aim of secondary education. In particular it was sug- 
gested that through the study of literature the pupil is 
brought into contact (vicariously) with human experiences 
and human conduct, and becomes acquainted with the facts, 
traditions, and ideals of society. Such contact and acquain- 
tance cannot but affect vitally the life of the pupil. It is 
through the emotional factor which makes literature, how- 
ever, that those facts, traditions, and ideals, which form the 
content of the study, take on a large part of their impelling 
power. It was further suggested that the integrating func- 
tion of secondary education was aided by the study of liter- 
ature through the arousal of common ideals and tendencies 
to act. Here again it is the aesthetic element which enhances 
those ideals and tendencies to act by adding emotional 
value. Finally it was suggested that the study of literature 



628 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

contributed to the ability worthily to enjoy leisure by es- 
tablishing standards and tastes in reading and by increas- 
ing the pupil's ability to enjoy good literature. This means 
nothing more or less than training in aesthetic appreciation. 
In so far as the development of ability to create literature 
or even to express one's self well is affected by the study of 
literature, aesthetic art on the expressive side is created. 

The sesthetic element in literature naturally finds its 
greatest strength in poetry. Content elements doubtless 
must always be the primary factors determining the selec- 
tion of materials in prose literature, the sesthetic elements 
being a secondary consideration. In poetry, however, the 
aesthetic elements should equal or transcend the content 
elements as controlling factors determining the selection 
of materials. 

III. Music 

284. Present status of the study of music. At the present 
time some instruction in music is probably provided in every 
public secondary school. In the vast majority of cases, how- 
ever, such instruction is restricted to one or two periods of 
chorus work which is frequently of a useless or worse than 
useless character — worse than useless in many instances 
because it arouses a positive distaste for the study of music 
and an opposition to the ineffective work which is at- 
tempted. According to the Report of the Commissioner of 
Education for the school year 1914-15 pupils were en- 
gaged in the study of vocal music as indicated in the follow- 
ing table: 

Table CXUX* 

Number „y ^^^^f^ 

Public High Schools 367,188 31 .50 

Private High Schools 47,467 37.76 

AU Secondary Schools 416,655 32. 19 

♦ Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. ii, pp. 487-89. 



THE AESTHETIC ARTS 629 

These figures are difficult to interpret properly, since in all 
probability they include in part figures for pupils who en- 
gage merely in certain general chorus work and in part 
pupils taking special elective courses in technical music. For 
pupils engaged in such courses and in courses in instrumental 
music no figures are available. Nor can any reliable estimate 
be made of the educational results of such music instruction 
as is sometimes provided through the organization of extra- 
curriculum orchestras, voluntary choruses, and musical clubs. 

285. The social-civic values of music. The study of music 
is not ordinarily conceived as possessing social-civic values. 
Nevertheless the social value of the study of music is not to 
be overlooked. It should be recognized that social attitudes 
and actions are not controlled exclusively by activity of the 
intellect and that emotional factors play no unimportant 
part in the determination of attitudes and actions. Through 
the enjoyment of music may be developed emotional tones 
in the individual or group which powerfully affect attitudes 
toward every form of activity, social, civic, vocational, and 
personal. Hence the importance of music in military affairs, 
in the church, in school group activities, and in general 
wherever large groups of people are assembled for common 
activity. For the development of common emotional atti- 
tudes in groups united for any purpose few instruments 
can compete with music. For example, the singing of the 
" Marseillaise," of the " Wacht am Rhein," of the " Star- 
Spangled Banner," of " God Save the King," may serve a 
social-civic purpose^ where any amount of reasoning might 
prove relatively ineffective. As one of the commonest forms 
of group activity for the utilization of leisure, music also 
serves a distinct social purpose. As long as music continues 
to be a carrier of common sentiment and ideals, it must 
continue to have social-civic values. 

286. Economic-vocational values of music. The voca- 



630 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

tional values of the study of music have been strangely over- 
looked in the secondary school. The number of persons 
engaged in the musical profession is by no means negligible 
from the viewpoint of vocational education. In this connec- 
tion it is to be noted that, whereas in most general fields of 
vocational activity a relatively small amount of elementary 
facts, principles, and processes is common to the various 
subdivisions of occupations classified under one general 
head, in the field of music there is a common foundation of 
technical knowledge underlying all the special subdivisions 
of the general field. Hence, there exists a considerable body 
of musical education which may be of definite vocational 
value to individuals engaging in the several branches of 
the musical profession. ^ 

287. Individualistic-avocational values of music. For 
the majority of pupils in the secondary school the primary 
values of the study of music must be found in the contribu- 
tions which it makes to the individualistic-avocational aim 
of secondary education — the preparation of the individual 
worthily to enjoy his leisure, assimilate the musical inherit- 
ance of society, and develop the expression of his own per- 
sonality in ways which are not designed primarily for the 
attainment of social-civic or economic- vocational efficiency. 
As one of the important means for the utilization of leisure, 
for the expression of certain forms of personal feeling, as an 
instrument deeply affecting emotional tones of the indi- 
vidual and of groups, as an art closely linked up with poetry, 
song, drama, the dance, and other forms of aesthetic ex- 
pression — as involving all these elements music deserves 
far greater attention in the secondary school than it now 
receives in most instances. 

1 According to the Thirteenth Census Report (1910), vol. iv, p. 93, the 
number of people engaged primarily as musicians and teachers of music 
was: total, 139,310; male, 54,832; female, 84,478. 



THE AESTHETIC AKTS 631 

288. Three groups of pupils to be considered. In a rough 
classification pupils in the secondary school may be divided 
into three general groups: (1) those who possess distinct 
interest and capacity in musical accomplishment ; (2) those 
who possess distinct interest and capacity in musical 
appreciation but only a moderate interest or capacity for 
musical accomplishment; (3) those who possess no interest 
or capacity in musical accomplishment and only a moderate 
interest or capacity for musical appreciation. Obviously 
no line of clear distinction can be drawn between group (2) 
and group (1) or (3). In fact it is to be hoped and expected 
that in their progress through the school many pupils will 
pass from group (2) to group (1) and from group (3) to 
group (2). 

289. Courses emphasizing musical accomplishment. 
Attention has been called above to the fact that an appre- 
ciable number of secondary-school pupils are destined to 
become professional musicians. Many others are destined 
to become part-time musicians and more or less skilled 
amateurs. The number of pupils thus classified in any 
school may to some degree be reckoned from the number of 
pupils who now '* take private music lessons ** outside the 
school. In the majority of schools at the present time this 
group is remarkably large. Proper attention should be 
given to this group either in the school program or through 
cooperation with instructors now providing private tuition. 
In the school itself should be offered for this group at least 
courses in musical theory and, as far as may be practicable, 
courses in practice, including chorus singing, glee-club work, 
orchestra, and applied music both vocal and instrumental. 
Such courses should, of course, involve intensive study with 
emphasis on technical knowledge, skill, and accomplish- 
ment, with a tendency, in some cases pronounced, toward 
emphasis on vocational ends. 



632 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

290. Courses emphasizing musical appreciation. Many 
persons have a distinct interest in and capacity for musical 
appreciation without marked interest in or capacity for 
musical accomplishment. They do not desire to become 
professional performers or even skilled amateurs, though 
they do desire to have extended opportunity for musical 
appreciation and a theoretical knowledge of music. For 
such pupils courses should be provided in chorus singing, 
glee-club work, music appreciation, and musical theory. 
In such courses technique may be reduced to a minimum 
necessary for proper appreciation and the vocational pur- 
pose should be eliminated. It should be recognized, how- 
ever, that the transition of many pupils from this group to 
the group of those who desire to study music for vocational 
purposes or with the intention of becoming skilled amateurs 
is to be expected. 

291. Courses for other pupils. After the two groups of 
pupils above mentioned have been provided for there 
remains the heterogeneous group of other pupils in the 
school whose musical interests and capacities range all the 
way from a real or imaginary opposition to music, through 
indifference, to a moderate degree of interest in and capacity 
for musical appreciation. For this group it should be recog- 
nized that musical instruction, in so far as it is at all proper, 
must be based on the development of musical appreciation. 
In most schools at the present time the only provision made 
for this group (as indeed for all groups mentioned) is general 
chorus singing. It is probable that for many pupils in this 
group, particularly the boys, no surer means could be devised 
to create a distaste for musical instruction than the require- 
ment of chorus singing. Esthetic appreciation, being of 
an emotional character primarily, is not readily susceptible 
to development under compulsion. This should be frankly 
recognized in the organization of courses in music for this 



THE ESTHETIC ARTS 633 

group of pupils. It is probable that the utilization of me- 
chanical musical instruments (player pianos, etc.), together 
with performances by skilled musicians, would accomplish 
much more to develop some degree of musical appreciation 
by many pupils who now openly or silently rebel against the 
requirement of participation in chorus singing. This means 
that chorus singing should be made elective rather than 
required in the secondary school, but that opportunity be 
afforded to all pupils to listen to good music. 

III. Design and Related Arts 

292. The field of design and related arts. By design and 
related arts are meant here those aesthetic arts which have 
to do with the manipulation of materials in space, form, and 
color, and represent aesthetic expression in the felicitous 
harmony of spacial or color relations. Included under this 
head, therefore, are drawing, painting, modeling, the aes- 
thetic side of construction in wood, metal, textiles, or other 
material, color selection and arrangement in cloth or other 
material, and such arrangement of materials or objects as 
may be involved in decoration. At the one extreme is found 
" art for art's sake " and at the other extreme is found art 
almost completely subordinated to the utilitarian demand. 
Until recently drawing (occasionally supplemented by 
color work) was the sole representative of these arts in the 
secondary school. Only with the present tendency to de- 
velop applied arts in the direction of industrial and house- 
hold arts were conditions created favorable for the interre- 
lation of practical and aesthetic arts so that the materials 
dealt with might satisfy both utilitarian and aesthetic 
demands. 

293. Two broad divisions of art instruction. As affecting 
instruction in art in the secondary school it is helpful to 



634 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

make two broad divisions of the field: (1) art instruction 
which concerns itself primarily with the appreciation (and 
to a slight extent possibly with the expression) of art not 
related to definite utilitarian ends; (2) art instruction which 
is definitely and purposely related to practical ends. The 
first of these two divisions is designed primarily to develop 
an appreciation of beauty in nature and the artificial envi- 
ronment, to satisfy the inherent love for the beautiful as 
a part of the development of personality, and to enable the 
individual to receive the spiritual inheritance of the race as 
expressed in art. This means courses in the school designed 
primarily to develop in pupils appreciation without refer- 
ence to artistic technique beyond the elements requisite for 
proper appreciation. In such courses are appropriate only 
such principles of space, form, and color harmony, of per- 
spective, composition, design, and such artistic ideals as are 
suitable for the proper appreciation and enjoyment of art 
products by the average individual who will not engage in 
activities involving artistic accomplishment. The second 
of the two divisions of art instruction is designed definitely 
to lead toward some form of artistic production, especially 
in relation to industrial, commercial, and household arts. 
Some of its more important phases are considered in the 
following sections. 

294. Design and related arts as related to industrial arts. 
Three conceptions emphasize the importance of relating 
aesthetic art to the industrial arts: (1) that life may be made 
more pleasant and therefore more efficient when ordinary 
artificial objects which surround us are agreeable to the 
senses and lend favorable emotional tones to daily life; (2) 
that sesthetic qualities attached to created objects add actual 
commercial values to the industrial product; (3) that the 
distinction between craftmanship and workmanship, be- 
tween the artisan and the laborer, is largely dependent on 



THE ESTHETIC ARTS 635 

the presence of the aesthetic element as an impelling factor 
in industrial production. Concerning the first and second 
of these conceptions little need be said here. Experience in 
the home and in the industrial or commercial world have 
shown clearly that actual efficiency is increased under more 
pteasant surroundings. Experience has also shown that of 
two industrial products equal in other respects that which 
is more pleasing to the senses will be chosen by the pur- 
chaser. 

The third conception mentioned above deserves more 
extended comment. The development of the factory system 
and of standardized production has all but destroyed indi- 
vidualism in the character of many industrial products and 
has almost eliminated the craftsmanship of earlier days. 
Three results are to be noted: (1) the industrial worker lost 
a large part of that stimulus and opportunity to contrive, 
invent, and create — to express his personality in the results 
of his work — which means so much on the side of interest, 
pleasure, and ultimately efficiency in labor; (2) industry 
lost something which can result only when the worker is 
interested in and enjoys his labor; (3) the user of industrial 
products lost much which might add to enjoyment in utiliz- 
ing the products of industrial labor. Industrial conditions 
are not likely to be reversed but rather to go farther in the 
direction which they have taken. Nevertheless the infusion 
of sesthetic ideals into the industrial arts can do much to 
ameliorate existing conditions. 

It is, of course, needless to enumerate the more directly 
utilitarian applications of the aesthetic arts in industrial 
occupations, such as mechanical and architectural drawing, 
design and color harmony in textile work, wall-paper, and 
the like, or the various applications of art design in metal and 
wood work. It needs only to be pointed out that the values 
of design and related arts are directly vocational for certain 



636 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

vocational groups in the secondary school whose later occu- 
pations may be in the field of industry. 

295. Design and related arts as related to commercial 
arts. As long as the commercial arts in the secondary school 
were limited to the clerical arts of bookkeeping, stenogra- 
phy, typewriting, and the like, the aesthetic arts could be 
considered as having no contact with commercial education 
in the school. However, with the growing conception that 
commercial education in the secondary school should be 
extended to cover salesmanship and other phases of mer- 
chandising and store service, a much wider field is opened 
up for the application of the aesthetic arts of design and its 
relatives. Thus, in practically all commercial enterprises 
advertising opens up opportunities for art. In retail stores 
window display, interior decoration, and counter display 
become effective fields for the union of aesthetic art with 
business. Finally, in all stores which deal in clothing and 
textiles, furniture, or personal and household furnishings, 
elements of color harmony and design become important 
to officers, salesmen, and saleswomen. Actual efficiency 
of commercial value is here contributed by applied elements 
of aesthetic training of boys and girls who join the vast army 
of commercial workers and come into direct contact with the 
purchaser of articles, no small part of whose value and 
appeal arise from aesthetic considerations. 

296. Design and related arts as related to domestic arts. 
In the expansion of the practical-arts program for girls in 
the secondary school a large and important field has been 
opened up for applied forms of design and its related arts. 
This is, of course, particularly true in connection with those 
arts which have to do with the selection of household equip- 
ment, even the house itself, the arrangement of household 
equipment, its care and service, and in the clothing arts. 
The physical environment of the home is one primary 



THE iESTHETIC ARTS 637 

source of happiness or unhappiness, of good or bad charac- 
ter, of good or bad health, of economic efficiency or ineffi- 
ciency — we may even say that it is in many cases the basis 
of successful or unsuccessful home life. Finally, it is the 
environment in which individuals in the earlier part of their 
lives must live and from which the first standards of ses- 
thetic feeling must come. All these considerations suggest 
the importance of a development of aesthetic appreciation 
and expression on the part of girls who must later become 
home-makers and who will to a large extent determine the 
character of the home surroundings and the character of 
coming generations. 

Of great importance also is the development of aesthetic 
appreciation and expression in clothing and dress. Instruc- 
tion in costume design and color harmony can do much not 
only to affect the enjoyment of life, but also to aid the fam- 
ily pocketbook and to offset the absurd dictates of fickle, 
sometimes even wasteful or indecent, " fashion.'* Unless his- 
tory reverses itself dress will always play an important part 
in the youth and early adult life of the girl and woman (or 
boy or man). In meeting the needs of dress^the practical, 
economical, physiological, moral, and aesthetic combine. 
Habits of dress have much to do with the character and life 
of the individual. No second Teufelsdrockh is needed to 
emphasize the philosophy of women's clothes. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. In any secondary school make a survey designed to ascertain: (a) what 
pupils receive or have received musical instruction under private 
tuition, with classifications according to length of instruction, number 
of lessons per week or month, kind of instrument on which instruction 
is received, etc.; (6) what pupils live in homes where muscial instru- 
ments are owned and played; (c) what pupils live in homes where me- 
chanical musical instruments a^e owned; etc. 

2. In any secondary school make a survey of the musical compositions, 
^ songs, etc., which are most popular, copies of which are owned, or 



638 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

"records" of which are owned m the home. Do not neglect the' 
"words" side of the songs! 

3. In any city ascertain the number of persons whose sole occupation is 
music and the number of those who devote a part of their time to 
the musical profession for remuneration. (For large cities use the 
census returns.) 

4. Outline the arguments for and against the requirement of some study 
of music by all pupils in the junior high school grades; in the first 
year of the four-grade high school. 

5. Outline the relative advantages and disadvantages of private instruc- 
tion and school instruction in music. 

6. Compare the values of private and school instruction in the various 
forms of graphic and plastic arts. 

7. To what extent can justification be found for the requirement of study 
in drawing in the junior high school by all pupils? What objections 
could be raised.'' 

8. Discuss the claim that drawing should be made a required study in 
the secondary school on the basis of its tool uses as a universal language. 

9. What are some of the specific elements of art instruction which may 
be considered of importance in the education of secondary-school 
girls? 

10. Discuss this statement: "The (art) work (in the high school) simplifies 
itself, however, into the single purpose of training the pupil to perfect 
his apperceptive faculties." 

11. Discuss Spencer's theory: "Accomplishments, the fine arts, belles- 
lettres, and all those things which, as we say, constitute the eflBorescence 
of civilization, should be wholly subordinate to that knowledge and 
discipline in which civilization rests. As they occupy the leisure part of 
life, so should they occupy the leisure part of Education." 

12. Discuss Dewey's theory that aesthetic expression precedes aesthetic 
appreciation. (Cf. page 590 of Monroe, P., Principles of Secondary 
Education.) 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

I. General: 

DeGarmo, C, Esthetic Education. 

Dewey, J., Dow, A. W., and Farnsworth, C. H., chap. XV of Monroe, 
P. (Editor), Principles of Secondary Education. 

Judd, C. H., The Psychology of High-School Subjects, chap. XV. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xxii. 

Spencer, H., Education, chap, i, pp. 64-79 (Burt edition). 
II. Music: 

Birge, E. B., "High-School Courses: Appreciation Work," Proceed- 
ings of the Music Teachers' National Association (1909), pp. 142 Jf. 



THE ESTHETIC ARTS 639 

Baldwin, R. L. (Chairman), Report of Committee on Public Schools, 
Proceedings of the Music Teachers' National Association (1908). 

Famsworth, C. H., Education Through Music. 

Manchester, A. L., Music Education in the United States Schools and 
Departments of Music, Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1908) 
no. 4. 

McConathy, O., "Music in High Schools," Proceedings of the Na- 
tional Education Association (1908), pp. 844 j^. 

McConathy, O., "High-School Credit for Applied Music taken 
under Special Teachers Outside of School," Proceedings of the 
National Education Association (1914), p. 634. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, Report of Committee on Music in 
Secondary Schools, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

Newton, E. W., Music in the Public Schools. 

Woods, G. H., "Instrumental Music and Instrumental Study in 
the Oakland Schools," Proceedings of the National Education As- 
sociation (1915), pp. 856-68. 
III. Design and related arts: 

Bailey, H. T., Instruction in the Fine and Manual Arts in the United 
States, Bureau of Education, Bulletin (1909) no. 6. 

Carter, C. M., "Art Education in the High School," pp. 221-42 
of Haney, J. P. (Editor), Art Education in the Public Schools of 
the United States. 

CofBn, W. S., "Art Education for House Furnishing," Proceedings 
of the National Education Association (1916), pp. 489-93. 

Dow, A. W., Theory and Practice of Teaching Art. 

Famum, R. B., Present Status of Dravnng and Art in the ElemeU' 
tary and Secondary Schools of the United States, Bureau of Edu- 
cation, Bulletin (1914) no. 13. .^ 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, Report of the Committee on Art 
Education, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

Cf. also references for Industrial Education, Domestic-Arts Education, 
and Manual Training at close of chapter xvn. 



CHAPTER XIX 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 
I. Physical Education 

297. Historical development. The ancient Greeks alone 
of all peoples in civilized society adequately recognized the 
importance of physical education and made proper provision 
therefor. After their time physical training as a formally 
organized part of the work of secondary education practi- 
cally disappeared from the school until about the beginning 
of the nineteenth century. In the Latin grammar school of 
the American colonies no provision was made for physical 
education nor was any provision made for that phase of 
education in the early academies. After the establishment 
of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 
1802 military training was introducted into many academies 
and even into a few public schools. About 1825 German 
gymnastics were introduced into some secondary schools, 
but that movement soon gave way to the early (Fellenberg) 
manual labor movement. The Civil War directed attention 
again toward military training but this again was supplanted 
by formal gymnastics in the eighties and nineties, gymnasi- 
ums were established in high schools, and gymnasium work 
remained the principal form of physical training in second- 
ary schools until the modern movement toward physical 
training through games tended in part to take the place 
of formal gymnastics. 

298. Present status. Physical education in the secondary 
schools of this country at the present time ranges all the 
way from the zero point to a very high degree of effective 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 641 

provision. Some conception of the situation as it existed in 
1910 may be seen from the following table: 

Table CL. Physical Education in 2392 Public 
High Schools * 

Schools Number Per cent 

Having a general department of physical education .109 4.6 

Having a teacher in charge of department 104 4 . 3 

Giving regular instruction in hygiene 372 15 . 6 

Work in hygiene prescribed 255 10 . 7 

Giving credit for work in hygiene 183 7 . 6 

Giving instruction in gymnastics 188 7 . 9 

Work in gymnastics prescribed 114 6.0 

Giving credit for work in gymnastics 79 3.3 

Giving instruction (?) in athletics 232 9.7 

Work in athletics prescribed 28 1.2 

Giving credit for work in athletics 15 0.6 

Giving instruction in swimming 6 0.2 

Having medical examination of students 139 5.8 

Having sanitary inspection by physician 284 11 .8 

Having swimming pools 9 0.3 

Having gymnasiums 175 7 . 3 

Having military drill 34 1.4 

Having athletic fields 469 19.6 

Having tennis courts 339 14 . 2 

* Compiled and arranged from data given by the Committee on Status of Instruction 
in Hygiene in American Educational Institutions, Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the 
American School Hygiene Association, pp. 174-75. Also pp. 453-54, American Physical 
Education Review, vol. xv. 

While conditions have improved noticeably since 1910, 
it remains true that woefully inadequate provisions are made 
for physical education in the public secondary schools at the 
present day. In the great majority of public secondary 
schools little or no provision is made for gymnasiums, no 
qualified teacher is employed for physical training or even 
for the teaching of hygiene, athletics are supervised and 
directed by teachers with few or no qualifications, no ade- 
quate machinery is provided for physical examination or 
even for medical inspection, and what little physical train- 
ing is given is of a formal and perfunctory character. The 
common provision, even in some of our best schools, of two 



642 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

periods per week in gymnasium exercises, is little more than 
a pretence of education. 

299. The values of physical education. The values of 
physical education in the secondary school are universally 
recognized in theory and almost universally ignored in prac- 
tice. Vital efficiency must always underlie and condition all 
other forms of efficiency — social, economic, and personal. 
This fact is readily recognized but its implications are seldom 
sufficiently understood. A few salient features may serve to 
emphasize those implications. 

(1) The annual death-rate for the United States is esti- 
mated to be between fifteen and eighteen per thousand of 
population. Between one and a half and two per cent of our 
total population dies each year and the median age of death 
is approximately thirty-eight. It is estimated that approxi- 
mately two fifths of those deaths could be postponed by the 
application in a reasonable way and to a reasonable extent 
of knowledge now available.^ 

(2) It is estimated that in the United States there are con- 
stantly about three million persons on the sick list. The 
application of available health knowledge in a reasonable 
way and to a reasonable extent could probably reduce this 
number by fully one half.^ 

(3) The economic loss to society each year through deaths 
which could have been postponed is probably more than a 
billion and a third dollars. The loss of earnings annually on 
the score of preventable illness is probably more than a half 
billion dollars. When there is added to these figures the cost 
of medical care for the sick which might with reasonable 
precautions have been avoided, the total annual loss for the 
country is estimated at over two billion dollars — over one 
hundred dollars for each family in the country.^ 

* Based on data collected from several sources by Rapeer, L. W., 

School Health Administration, pp. 17-27. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 643 

(4) The physical and mental suffering caused by ill health 
and death cannot, of course, be estimated. Its extent may 
be judged in part from the figures above presented. The 
important fact to be noted is that much of that suffering 
might be prevented if proper precautions were taken. 

It is obviously true that the prevention of premature 
death and of many illnesses must depend on the physician's 
skill to a large extent. It is also true, however, that much de- 
pends on: (a) the development of a greater degree of resist- 
ance to disease through the improvement of bodily health; 
(b) the dissemination of available health knowledge and the 
development of health habits. Here the responsibility rests 
on the school for physical education in hygiene and physi- 
ology and for physical training. In both fields the secondary 
school must play its part. 

300. Factors emphasizing physical education. Physical 
education has always had important claims for attention in 
the secondary school. However, numerous factors have com- 
bined to emphasize its importance at the present time. 
Among those factors may be mentioned the following: 

(1) The past quarter of a century has seen tremendous 
strides taken in the advance of preventive medicine as re- 
lated to hygiene and sanitation. Much of that advance con- 
sists in the accumulation of relatively simple health knowl- 
edges which need but to be known and understood to reduce 
greatly illnesses and death or to improve the physical effi- 
ciency of the individual and the race. The dissemination of 
those health knowledges and the development of habits of 
life in accordance therewith is an important function of the 
school. Much of this may readily be done in the elementary 
school. Much is appropriate to secondary education. 

(2) Recent developments in health knowledge have em- 
phasized the importance of cooperation in community hy- 
giene and sanitation. It is probable that children in the 



644 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

elementary school are not mature enough in their social 
consciousness to grasp adequately principles and problems 
of this phase of physical education and that the major part 
of responsibility for it must rest on the secondary school. It 
may be noted that this phase of physical education merges 
with civic education and in part may be provided for in 
connection with community civics. 

(3) Changes in American life within recent years have 
tended to diminish the stimuli and opportunities for physical 
exercise and training. Among the most important factors 
here involved may be noted: (a) the tendency toward life in 
the city and away from life in the country has served to 
lessen the stimuli and opportunities for physical activity 
both in work and in play; (b) not many generations ago the 
major part of work was done by men and women, boys and 
girls. At present the major part of work is done by machin- 
ery. The loss in physical activity by the worker has been 
great. Even where " hand work " is still important it tends 
to be limited to a single series of specialized movements; 

(c) sedentary occupations have tended to increase greatly; 

(d) within recent years " sedentary " amusements have 
tended to supplant amusements involving physical activity 
and to be confined to indoor instead of out-of-door amuse- 
ments. 

(4) In part as a result of certain factors mentioned above, 
in part for other reasons, it has been claimed that, while 
zymotic diseases have been greatly decreased by develop- 
ments in preventive medicine, certain organic diseases and 
diseases of the nervous system have greatly increased.^ 
Here the facts are by no means clear, since it is difficult to 
ascertain whether the figures represent a real increase or only 
an apparent increase due to improvements in methods of 

1 Corwin, R. W., Proceedings of the National Education Association 
(1913), pp. 419-20. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 645 

diagnosis and increased attention to nervous diseases. The 
factor mentioned below may, however, affect the situation. 
(5) Through improved methods of preventive and reme- 
dial medicine many persons are now preserved to maturity 
who previously would have died at an early age. In many 
cases they have constitutions which require careful atten- 
tion if they are to be protected from disease. The secondary 
school must do its share in providing them with physical 
education. 

301. Three general divisions of physical education. Three 
general divisions of physical education may be distinguished 
in the secondary school: (1) instruction in physiology and 
hygiene; (2) physical training provided as a regular part of 
the school work; (3) athletics and play. In making this dis- 
tinction it is not intended to imply that work in the various 
fields mentioned is or should be entirely dissociated. The 
sole purpose in making the distinction is to consider the 
special values and aims of the three phases of physical edu- 
cation. In the work of the secondary school they should be 
as closely associated as possible. The position will be taken 
in a later section that athletics and play should be a regular 
part of the organized and directed physical training. The 
position will also be taken that the effective administration 
of physical education can be carried out only when there 
exists adequate machinery for medical inspection and 
health supervision. 

302. Physiology and hygiene: past and present status. 
The study of physiology and hygiene in the public schools 
had its beginning in the third decade of the nineteenth cen- 
tury and its development was rapid after 1850. Its greatest 
impetus, however, came as a result of the " temperance " 
movement of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. By 
the beginning of the present centm-y nearly all States had 
made legal provision requiring the teaching of physiology 



64>6 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and hygiene with " special instruction as to the effect of 
alcoholic drinks and of stimulants and narcotics on the hu- 
man system." Much of that instruction was provided in 
the grades of the elementary school, but the study of phy- 
siology and hygiene also had its place in the secondary 
school. Data concerning the study of the subject in the pub- 
lic high schools from 1895 to 1915 are presented in the fol- 
lowing table: 

Table CLI. Public High-School Pupils engaged in 
THE Study op Physiology, 1895-1915* 

Year Number Per cent 

1895 104,862 29.95 

1900 142,401 27.42 

1905 149,262 21 .96 

1910 113,252 15.32 

1915 110,541 9.48 

* Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. n, p. 487. 

On the whole it may be said that up to recent date instruc- 
tion in physiology and hygiene both in the elementary school 
and in the secondary school has been a conspicuous failure, 
though reforms of the past decade give promise of better- 
ment. For this failure it is not difficult to find reasons: 
(a) the study was inaugurated in the schools as part of a 
propaganda and became preaching rather than instruction; 
(6) teachers were either apathetic and merely conformed to 
the letter of the law or were reformers whose enthusiasm led 
to well-meant but ignorant teaching; (c) as far as temper- 
ance instruction was concerned much that was taught was 
demonstrably false and obviously untrue even in the knowl- 
edge of the pupils, while much more was not demonstrably 
true; (d) apart from the temperance propaganda the physi- 
ology which was taught, especially in the high school, con- 
cerned itself with anatomy and scientific classification of 
parts and organs of the body rather than with the applica- 
tion of hygiene knowledge; (e) textbooks in physiology until 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 647 

within recent years were most unsatisfactory, either tending 
to exaggeration and falsity when designed as a part of 
temperance propaganda or tending toward too much 
scientific classification and organization and neglecting 
practical hygiene. 

Within the past few years and especially in the high school 
there has developed a tendency to provide instruction in 
physiology and hygiene not only through courses in that 
subject proper, but also in connection with biology, general 
science, domestic science, and community civics. Further, 
textbooks in the subject and methods of teaching have been 
adapted to the real ends of instruction in physiology and 
hygiene — the imparting of health knowledge and the de- 
velopment of health habits which will have practical and 
fairly general application in the lives of the pupils. 

303. Place of physiology and hygiene in the program. 
It must be recognized that instruction in physiology and 
hygiene has its legitimate and necessary place in the school. 
Some of that instruction is and should be provided in the 
elementary school throughout its course (grades one to six). 
Before entrance to the junior high school the pupil should 
have acquired considerable physiological and hygienical 
knowledge. Instruction in those fields should be continued 
throughout the jimior high school. In the seventh grade 
(first grade of the junior high school) that instruction may 
well be given as a separate study. In the eighth and ninth 
grades (second and third grades of the junior high school) 
it may be made a part of the general science coiu'ses. In the 
ninth grade also it should be related to the course in com- 
munity civics. Throughout the junior high school all in- 
struction in physiology and hygiene should be conducted 
primarily from the viewpoint of its application to the lives 
of the pupils and to social needs. The study of physiology 
and hygiene as a science has no place in the junior high 



648 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

school. As a science physiology and hygiene should be 
reserved for study as elective in the senior high school. 
Recognition of the phenomena of retardation and elimina- 
tion should guard us against the suggestion made by some 
that a high-school course in physiology and hygiene (to be 
engaged in by all pupils) should be deferred until the pupil 
may have studied biology, chemistry and physics.^ 

304. Direct importance of physiology and hygiene. There 
is no possible way of determining exactly the importance of 
some knowledge of physiology and hygiene to the second- 
ary-school pupil during the school period of his life. A few 
facts are worthy of attention, however, in that connection. 

(1) In 1914-15 the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion reports that 585 cities in the country having each a 
population of 10,000 or over had a total enrollment of 
643,957 high-school pupils with an average daily attendance 
of 540,603.2 gQ many factors affect attendance or non- 
attendance that it is impossible to determine the amount 
of absence from high school that is due to illness or to esti- 
mate the effect of poor attendance on the pupil's work, 
retardation, and sometimes elimination. It is known, how- 
ever, that one of the most potent causes of retardation, even 
in high-school pupils, is irregular attendance. ^ The amount 
of non-attendance due to illness or poor health is greater 
than is sometimes thought. This may in part be remedied 
by proper health inspection and attention, in part by the 
dissemination of health knowledge and the development of 
health habits among high-school pupils. 

(2) Careful investigation of the physical conditions of 

* Cf . Berry, C. S., p. 357 of Johnston, C. H. (Editor) , High School Education. 

2 Report of United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. 11, p. 47. 

3 Cf. Ayres, L. P., "The Relation Between Physical Defects and School 
Progress," Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the American School Hygiene 
Association^ pp. 99-105; Rapeer, L. W., School Health Administration, 
pp. 31-50, 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 



649 



secondary-school pupils has indicated that more than one 
half of the high-school pupils suffer from more or less serious 
physical defects.^ While the correction of many of those 
defects demands the care of the specialist the health instruc- 
tion of the school can at least impress on the pupils the 
recognition of their defects and the importance of immediate 
attention to their correction. 

(3) Children of secondary-school age in alarming numbers 
suffer from preventable diseases. Some conception of the im- 
portance of this factor may be gained from figures presented 
in the following table. ^ 

Table CLII. Estimated Preventability of Deaths of Chil- 
dren OF Ages Fifteen to Nineteen for Ten Most Nu- 
merous Causes of Death est 1910 



Causes of deatba 



Pulmonary tuberculosis . 
Aceidents and undefined. 

Typhoid fever 

Heart disease, organic. . . 

Pneumonia 

Tuberculosis, other parts 

Appendicitis 

Bright's disease 

Suicide 

Meningitis 



Total num- 
ber of 
deaths m 
United 
States 



8650 

4230 

2830 

1940 

1920 

1750 

1270 

740 

550 

500 



Per cent 
preventable 



75 

? 

85 
25 
45 
75 
50 
40 
? 
70 



Number 
preventable 



6487 

? 
2405 

485 

864 
1177 

635- 

286 

? 

350 



These and other considerations render imperative and 
effective program of health instruction, inspection, and care 
in the secondary school. 

* Small, W. S., pp. 500-03 of Rapeer, L. W. (Editor), Educational Hygiene. 

2 Arranged from data given by Rapeer, L. W., School Health Administra- 
tion, p. 17. Cf. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 
Mortality Statistics (1911). 



650 PEINCIPLES OF SECONDAEY EDUCATION 

305. Sex hygiene and sex pedagogy. Modern civilization 
is in many points in direct conflict with nature; nowhere is 
it in greater conflict than in matters related to sex. Modern 
conventions and the conditions of modern life make neces- 
sary and desirable the postponement of marriage until a date 
considerably later than the development of strong sex in- 
stincts and the maturity of physiological functions related 
to sex. Sex maturity begins to appear during the period of 
secondary education, and the development of sex instincts 
during that period is as inevitable as the daily rising of the 
sun. Sex indulgence, normal and perverted, among second- 
ary-school pupils is by no means the rare exception that trust- 
ing and optimistic school authorities would believe. For 
every case that becomes known there are many cases which 
remain undiscovered. 

The importance of measures which may help to diminish 
the ravages of venereal diseases in society need not here be 
rehearsed. The prevalence of such diseases and their effects 
have been discussed ad nauseam in modern literature, both 
scientific and unscientific. The problems of education in this 
connectioti are not those of need, but rather of ways and 
means. According to Crampton: ^ 

The problem resolves itself into two parts: 

1st. Shall instruction in sex hygiene be given in the schools.'* 

2d. When, how, and by whom shall it be given? 

The situation is bristling with dijBficulties. It may be questioned 
whether knowledge is more protective than ignorance, and the 
answer may be that knowledge from a worthy source is better than 
that which comes from vicious companions. 

It may be firmly held that this instruction should come from the 
father and mother, the physician or other sources; to this the 
reply must be given that these sources are iqeffective, for the 
situation still demands a remedy. 

^ Crampton, C. W., "The Teaching of Hygiene," Proceedings of the 
Fourth Congress of the American School Hygiene Association, pp. 137-42. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 651 

It is a question whether this instruction should begin before or 
after puberty, in the elementary school or the high school. ^ 
Whether it should be taught in the department of biology, hygiene, 
physical training, or in an entirely separate department, is still to 
be determined. 

The advantages of the lecture method as against the individual 
conference, the systematic as against the occasional presentation, 
are all to be considered. 

Whatever course may be followed it is safe to say that it should 
be based upon the relation of the sex hygiene to health, rather than 
its relation to ethics or religion. 

The answer to the jBrst problem raised by Crampton 
should be unqualifiably affirmative. Education in sex hy- 
giene must be given in the schools. The legitimate place for 
that education is at the point where it has its greatest appli- 
cation, namely, when the sex instincts begin to mature. 
The school is the only agency which society may systemati- 
cally control for purposes of this education. 

To the second problem raised by Crampton no final answer 
can be given on the basis of available knowledge. Much may 
be done in the departments of biology, physiology, hygiene, 
physical training, and civics. Much may also be done in 
the administration of the school activities, particularly in 
connection with the extra-curriculum activities, social and 
athletic. Crampton quotes Governor Whitman (formerly 
District Attorney for New York City) to the effect 

that athletics have done and would do more to wipe out the 
** white slave" traffic than the passage of any or all of the legisla- 
tion now pending in Washington or Albany.^ 

306. Past and present status of physical training. In the 
American secondary school physical training through bodily 

^ The organization of the six-three-three school system afiFects this 
problem. 

2 Crampton, C. W., "The Teaching of Hygiene," Proceedings oj the 
Fourth Congress oj the American School Hygiene AssodaMon, p. 141. 



65^ PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

activity has at various times and to varying extent followed 
four principal lines of development: (1) military drill; (2) 
" manual labor " and " manual training"; (3) formal gym- 
nastic exercises; (4) athletic exercises and games. Military 
drill was found in some of the Latin grammar schools. Mili- 
tary or semi-military academies and private schools have 
been more or less prominent from the beginning of the 
nineteenth century. The Civil War, the Spanish War, and 
the present World War, each gave at least temporary impe- 
tus to military training both in private and public secondary 
schools. The early manual labor movement laid emphasis 
on " practical " physical activity and the element of physical 
training was emphasized in the manual training movement 
of the last quarter of the nineteenth centiuy. Formal 
gymnastics found a place in the secondary school of the 
second quarter of the nineteenth century for a short time 
and were prominent periodically until they secured a firm 
position in the schools in the last quarter of the nineteenth 
century. Athletics and games developed extensively but in- 
formally during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 
Their incorporation into the secondary school as an integral 
part of its work and their extensive substitution for formal 
gymnastic exercises have been developments of recent years. 

In Table CLI some incomplete data were presented con- 
cerning physical training in the secondary schools. They 
show that the problem of physical training through exercise 
as yet has not been adequately recognized, much less solved. 

307. Values and aims of physical training. In general 
the values and aims of physical training through motor activ- 
ity are per se the values and aims of all physical education. 
In particular physical training through motqr activity aims 
to improve bodily health and efficiency by giving exercise 
to those parts of the body which fundamentally condition 
health and vigor, by developing muscular and neural coor- 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 653 

dination, by establishing habits of healthful exercise, and, in 
some cases, by correcting certain physical defects. Physical 
training through motor activity as such concerns bodily 
health and efficiency alone. However, the greatest error in 
physical training instruction in the past has been the tend- 
ency (common, e.g., in formal calisthenics and gymnastics) 
to isolate that phase of education both from instruction in 
hygiene and also from the mental, social, and moral education 
with which it should be associated. The result was a form 
of physical education highly artificial, lacking in attraction 
to the pupil, and in the majority of schools very ineffective. 
On the other hand, when the course in physical training is 
properly combined with other phases of education, espe- 
cially as the combination is found in games and athletics, 
few courses in the secondary school can compete with physi- 
cal training as an educative force at once physical, social, 
and moral, and few courses can so readily stimulate the inter- 
est and endeavor of the pupils. This point is considered at 
greater length in following sections. 

308. Gymnastics in the program. In the German higher 
schools formal gymnastics are judged to be a conspicu- 
ous success. In the American secondary school they can- 
not be considered otherwise than as a conspicuous failure. 
That failure has been due in part to the fact that very in- 
adequate provision was made in many schools and that 
teachers are not well trained for such instruction. More 
important, however, at least as far as the future is con- 
cerned, are the objections which may be raised against re- 
liance on formal gymnastics as the sole or principal means 
of physical training: (1) they are highly artificial and do not 
correspond closely to the normal motor activities in life; 

(2) they are purely mechanical and lack mental content; 

(3) they frequently arouse a distaste rather than a liking for 
physical exercise; (4) except for a few individuals they fail 



654^ PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

to arouse permanent interests or develop self-sustaining 
habits; (5) they ignore or minimize the recreation element; 
(6) they lack the social and moral elements which are prom- 
inent in athletics and games; (7) as commonly taught to 
large groups they tend to ignore individual differences in 
physical endowment, acquirements, and needs. 

All these objections may be raised against formal gym- 
nastics as the sole or principal means of physical training. 
As a part of the program for physical training they have a 
legitimate place, possessing as they do, certain advantages 
which may not be found in athletics and games. Among 
those advantages may be mentioned the following: (a) prop- 
erly administered gymnastics may be made an effective 
means of corrective training for individuals or selected 
groups of pupils; (b) their artificial character permits the 
selection of those exercises and only those exercises for 
psychomotor activity which make positive contributions 
to specific ends in physical training; (c) they may be made to 
combine certain aesthetic elements with physical training; 

(d) they may be made to include disciplinary elements; 

(e) they leave no room for the evils which always threaten 
athletics and games; (/) they permit organization into sys- 
tematically graduated exercises which may readily be 
adapted to the demands of physiological development on 
the part of pupils. 

309. Athletics, dancing, and games. While formally 
organized and officially administered physical training was 
struggling for a place in the work of the secondary school 
during the later part of the nineteenth century there was 
rapidly developing an extensive amount of informally organ- 
ized and unofficially directed physical training through 
athletics and games in connection with the secondary 
schools. At first opposed by many school authorities, later 
accepted as a necessary evil, athletics and games have fin- 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 655 

ally been welcomed at least as desirable auxiliaries to physi- 
cal training. At present there is evidence that the stone 
which the builders rejected may become the head of the 
corner. One of the immediate needs of physical training 
in the secondary school is the harnessing up for effective 
training of those forms of physical activity which in ath- 
letics, dancing, and games so vitally hold the interest and 
provoke the endeavor of pupils. 

Properly organized and administered athletics, dancing, 
and games offer opportunities for the development of a pro- 
gram of physical training and its coordination with other 
forms of education which no program of formal gymnastics 
can hope to accomplish. Reasons for this may be seen from 
the following considerations. 

(1) For the normal secondary-school pupil physical 
training through athletics and games provides opportunity 
for motor activity which meets every aim of physical train- 
ing as such much better than any form of artificial training. 
The movements of the body in athletics, dancing, and games 
are natural movements and have at least a temporarily 
definite purpose obvious to the pupil. In addition such 
exercises engage every important organ and part of the body 
and to a considerable extent they are carried on in the open 
air instead of in an enclosed, sometimes unhygienic, gym- 
nasium. 

(2) Athletics, dancing, and games, to a degree not par- 
alleled by any other school exercise, unite phases of physical, 
mental, social, and moral education. In the majority of 
school studies social and moral principles are read about 
and talked about. In athletics and games they are learned 
through actual practice and by actual participation in the 
activities which call for their manifestation. 

(3) In the greater part of secondary-school work the 
school must develop interests and endeavor. Athletics and 



656 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

games have developed among the pupils to a certain degree 
spontaneously and through their native interests. Nowhere 
in the program of school work do we find such a firm basis 
of established interest. 

(4) Physical training through athletics, dancing, and 
games offers an opportunity for the establishment of per- 
manent health and recreation interests and habits. It thus 
becomes not merely a temporary expedient but an abiding 
instrument for health and pleasure. 

(5) Educators are but beginning to recognize the impor- 
tant part held by play. Formal gymnastics ignores its impor- 
tance. Athletics, dancing, and games make play the very 
basis of their appeal and value. 

(6) Formal gymnastics as the principal means of physi- 
cal training readily allows the subordination of educational 
needs to administrative exigencies. The organization of 
physical training on the basis of athletics and games forces 
the subordination of administrative exigencies to the real 
needs of physical training. 

310. Some dangers in such organization. In the organiza- 
tion of physical training on the primary basis of athletics 
and games certain dangers must be guarded against. 

(1) Properly organized and administered athletics and 
games may be made the basis of very effective social and 
moral education. Improperly organized and improperly ad- 
ministered they may become the means of harmful results 
in social and moral education. The price of gain is always 
the possibility of loss. The more effective an instrument is 
when properly employed the more dangerous it is likely to 
be when misapplied or carelessly used. 

(2) A program of physical training through athletics and 
games must be prepared with great care. For girls in par- 
ticular athletics and games in the secondary school where 
girls are in the pubescent or adolescent stages must be 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 657 

organized with attention to their physical needs and con- 
ditions. 

(3) A program of physical training based on athletics and 
games as the primary element presupposes proper pro- 
vision for physical examination and care. In this connec- 
tion it should be noted that physical training of any kind 
cannot be effective and may be actually harmful unless an 
effective program of health administration is established. 

(4) Attempts to harness athletics and games to the regu- 
lar work of the secondary school may easily result in the 
destruction of those spontaneous interests, enthusiasms, and 
endeavors which have made them such effective instru- 
ments for physical training (and for other forms of educa- 
tion) in the past when they were left more or less to the 
control of the pupils. In the organization of athletics 
as an integral part of the work of the secondary school, 
unless those spontaneous interests of the pupils can be 
preserved, there is danger that many of the advantages of 
athletics and games as forms of physical training may be 
lost. 

(5) Closely related to the above is the problem of com- 
petitive interscholastic athletics. Many evils have un- 
doubtedly developed around interscholastic contests and 
for that reason considerable opposition has been raised to 
their continuance. It should be noted, however, that inter- 
scholastic contests have been the principal factor contribut- 
ing to the development of secondary-school athletics. No 
greater error could be made than to destroy the pupils' inter- 
est and cooperation in physical training through athletics 
and games by eliminating interscholastic contests. 

311. Military training and physical training. The pres- 
ence or imminence of war has always led to the considera- 
tion of military training as a part of the work of the second- 
ary school. The predominant purpose of military training 



658 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

is social and moral. Nevertheless it is to some extent re- 
lated to physical training and is sometimes made a substi- 
tute for other forms of physical training. For convenience 
it may be considered in the present connection* 

As a principal or sole means of physical training military 
training is unsatisfactory for the following reasons: (1) it is 
almost totally unsuitable for girls; (2) except as it includes 
forms of physical training not peculiar to military training 
it is limited in its scope for that purpose; (3) it cannot be 
required of all boys in the secondary school; (4) it does not 
capitalize the powerful instincts and interests of play and 
competition as do athletics and games; (5) its primary 
and fundamental aim is not physical, but social and moral, 
and those aims should dominate its instruction. 

As a subsidiary means of physical education and as a 
means of social-moral education military training has legiti- 
mate claims for attention in the secondary school. Optimis- 
tic belief in the ultimate brotherhood of man and confidence 
in the ultimate elimination of militarism and war should not 
blind us to the fact that at present preparation for the social- 
civic duties of life includes preparation for the defense of 
our lives and of om* institutions. This can never be wholly 
intellectual and emotional. It must also involve the physi- 
cal. In military training, therefore, some opportunity is 
afforded for this necessary factor through the combination 
of social, moral, and physical elements which must be in- 
volved in adequate preparation for civic education. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. In any secondary school make an investigation of the illnesses of pupils 
and absences due to illness. 

2. In any secondary school investigate the amount and character of 
physical exercise engaged in by pupils for any given period. 

3. Compare the systems of physical education in German, English, and 
American secondary schools. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 659 

4. Trace the development of gymnastics in the American secondary 
school. 

5. Trace the development of athletics in the American secondary school. 

6. Trace the development of military training in the American secondary 
school. 

7. Trace the development of instruction in physiology and hygiene in the 
American secondary school. 

8. Analyze the arguments for and against the separate and direct teaching 
of sex hygiene in the public secondary school. 

9. Analyze the arguments for and against mihtary training for boys in 
the public secondary school. 

10. Analyze the evils of secondary school athletics. How may they be 
remedied? 

11. Select one group of pupils from the highest quarter of any secondary- 
school class (as measured by school grades) and another group of pupils 
from the lowest quarter of the same class. Compare the amount of 
illness and absence because of illness in both groups. 

12. Compare the grades received by pupils who have engaged in athletics 
and those received by pupils who have engaged in no athletics in any 
one year. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

I. General: 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D., The Administration of Public Educa- 
tion in the United SiateSy chap. xxni. 

Fisher, I., National Vitality: Its Waste and Conservation, Report of 
the National Conservation Commission, vol. in, pp. 620-751. 

Gulick, L. H., Report of the Committee on the Status of Physical Edu- 
cation in Public Normal Schools and Public High Schools in the 
United States, American Physical Education Review, vol. xv, 
pp. 453-54. Also in Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the 
American School Hygiene Association, pp. 174-75. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, Report of Committee on Physical 
Education in Secondary Schools, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

New York State, General Plan and Syllabus for Physical Training 
in the Elementary and Secondary Schools. 

American Physical Education Review. 

Rapeer, L. W., School Health Administration, especially pp. 17-53. 

Rapeer, L. W. (Editor), Educational Hygiene, especially chaps, i, 
xxni, XXVI. 

Sargent, D., Physical Education. 

Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, chap. xxrv. 

Wood, T. D., "Health and Education," Ninth Yearbook of the Na- 
tional Society for the Study of Education, part i. 



660 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

II. Physiology and hygiene: 

Berry, C. S., chap, xix of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), High-School 
Education. 

Cabot, R. C, "The Teaching of Hygiene," American Physical Edu- 
cation Review, vol. xiv, pp. 352-58. 

Crampton, C. W., "The Teaching of Hygiene," Proceedings of the 
Fourth Congress of the American School Hygiene Association^ 
pp. 137-42. 

Henderson, C. R., "Education with Reference to Sex," Eighth Year- 
book of the National Society for the Study of Education, parts i and ii. 

Lloyd, F. E., and Bigelow, M. A., The Teaching of Biology in the 
Secondary Schools. 

Small, W. S., "Health Teaching in the High School," chap, xxvi of 
Rapeer, L. W. (Editor), Educational Hygiene. 

Storey, T. A., "The Relation of School Hygiene to Physical Educa- 
tion," American Physical Education Review, vol. xiv, pp. 529-36. 

WUe, I. S., " Sex Hygiene and Sex Education," chap, xxix of Rapeer, 
L. W. (Editor), Educational Hygiene. 
in. Athletics, dancing and games: 

Curtis, H. S., Education through Play, especially chaps, i-vi, x, xi. 

Dudley, G., and Kellor, F., Athletic Games in theEducation of Women. 

Fauver, E., "Physical Education and Athletics in the High School," 
chap, xxiii of Rapeer, L. W., Educational Hygiene. 

Hetherington, C. W., "Athletics," chap, xix of Monroe, P. (Editor), 
Principles of Secondary Education. 

Johnson, G. E., Education by Plays and Games. 

Kindervater, A. E., "German Gymnastics Adapted to American 
High School Conditions," Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the 
American School Hygiene Association, pp. 47-56. 

Lee, J., Play in Education. 

Naismith, J., "High-School Athletics and Gymnastics," chap, xvn 
of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), The Modern High School. 

Nichols, E. H., "Competitive Athletics," American Physical Educa- 
tion Review, vol. xiv, pp. 589 jf. 

Playground Association of America, Report of Committee on Athletics 
for Boys and Athletics for Girls. 

Sargent, D. A., Physical Education, chap. vin. 
IV. Military training: 

Ayres, L. P., "Military Drill in High Schools," School Review, 
vol. XXV, pp. 157-60. 

Bliss, D. C, "Military Training in the High School," School Review, 
vol. XXV, pp. 161-67. 

Massachusetts Commission on Military Education, Report, School 
Review, vol. xxv, pp. 168-76. 

National Education Association, Report of Committee on Military 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 661 

Training, "Military Training in the Schools and Colleges," 

Educational Review, vol. liv, pp. 54-72. Also, Proceedings (1917), 

pp. 1006-18. 
New York State Laws (1916), chap. 566. 
Sargent, D. A., Physical Education, chap. ix. 
Small, W. S., "Military Training in the High School: Why and 

How?" Proceedings of the National Education Association (1916), 

pp. 570-74. 
Steever, E. Z., "The Wyoming Plan of Military Training for the 

School," School Review, vol. xxv, pp. 145-50. 

Extended bibliographies: McCurdy, J. H., Bibliography of Physical 
Training; Bibliography of Medical Inspection and Health Super- 
vision, Bureau of Education Bulletin (1913), no. 16; Indices of 
volumes of the American Physical Educational Review; Burgess, 
W. R., Cummings, H. B. Tomlinson, W. P., "Military Train- 
ing in the Public Schools, An Annotated Bibliography," Teachers 
College Record, vol. xvin, pp. 141-60. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE ORGANIZATION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION: 
CURRICULUMS 

I. HiSTOBICAL AND COMPARATIVE 

312. Historical development of curriculums. The Latin 
grammar school of the American colonies, as elsewhere, 
provided a single inflexible curriculum for all pupils — a 
narrowly classical curriculum designed to prepare boys for 
college. No departure from that plan was made until the 
time of the academy with its introduction not only of 
different subjects of study but also of differentiated cur- 
riculums. Thus in the academy established by Franklin 
provision was made for a Latin school, an English school, 
and a mathematical school, to which was added later a 
philosophical school. Thus also we find a Classical Depart- 
ment and an English Department in the Phillips Academy 
at Andover in 1818. At least to the extent of somewhat 
separate classical and English departments and sometimes 
separate departments or schools for boys and girls, curricu- 
lum differentiation became common in the academy at a 
relatively early date. 

At the beginning of the high-school movement the tend- 
ency toward differentiation was manifested not by offering 
different curriculums in the same school but by establishing 
separate schools for different groups of pupils. Thus we 
find the secondary-school system of Boston, which up to 
1821 had consisted of the Public Latin School alone, en- 
larged by the establishment of the English Classical (High) 
School in that year and by the establishment of the Girls' 



CURRICULUMS 663 

High School in 1826. A few other cities followed this plan. 
The high-school law of 1827 in Massachusetts tended to 
check the practice of establishing separate secondary schools 
for different groups of pupils and tended to establish public 
high schools in which somewhat differentiated curriculums 
were provided. The practice of providing separate curricu- 
lums or departments within the same school has been the 
usual practice almost from the beginning of the high-school 
movement. It is to be noted that the bases of differentiated 
curriculums, until well toward the close of the nineteenth 
century, were (1) separate courses for those going to college 
and those not going to college; (2) separate courses for boys 
and for girls, especially during the earlier period; and (3) 
toward the close of the century somewhat differentiated 
courses for pupils preparing for varying forms of higher 
education. 

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century a num- 
ber of factors combined to foster greater differentiation than 
had previously obtained in the organization of curriculums : 
(1) the increased differentiation in college admission re- 
quirements; (2) the increasing strength of demands for the 
recognitionof newly developed subjects of study; (3) the ex- 
tension of the patronage of the public high school and the 
influx of pupils with different interests, capacities, and prob- 
able future needs; (4) the demands of vocational education 
and practical-arts education, especially as related to man- 
ual, technical, and commercial training; (5) increasing rec- 
ognition of the principle of *' selection." These and other 
factors as early as 1890 caused such a lack of uniformity and 
so much variation in secondary education that a committee 
was appointed by the National Council of Education to 
render a report on the general subject of uniformity in 
school programs and in requirements for admission to col- 
lege. As a consequence of the report presented by that com- 



664 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

mittee in 1891 the National Education Association ap- 
pointed a committee to continue the study of the matter in 
1892. That committee (the Committee of Ten on Secondary 
School Studies) rendered a report in 1893 which practically 
dominated the curriculums of American secondary educa- 
tion for more than a decade and whose influence has not yet 
entirely ceased. The diversity of subject which had devel- 
oped in the secondary school in 1893 may be seen from the 
fact " that the total number of subjects taught in the sec- 
ondary schools was nearly forty, thirteen of which, however, 
were found in only a few schools." 

313. Curriculums recommended by the Committee of 
Ten. The most important result of the work of the Com- 
mittee of Ten was the formulation of four curriculums which 
were recommended as models for the work of the secondary 
school. Those curriculums were based on the list of sub- 
jects " which the Conferences deal with as proper for sec- 
ondary schools." ^ 

They are: 1. languages — Latin, Greek, English, German, and 
French, (and locally Spanish) ; 2. mathematics — algebra, geometry, 
and trigonometry; 3. general history, and the intensive study of 
special epochs; 4. natural history — including descriptive astron- 
omy, meteorology, botany, zoology, physiology, geology, and eth- 
nology, most of which subjects may be conveniently grouped under 
the title of physical geography; and 5. physics and chemistry. The 
Committee of Ten assent to this list, both for what it includes and 
for what it excludes, with some practical qualifications to be 
mentioned. 

On the basis of this list of subjects the committee sug- 
gested foin* curriculums — the Classical CoiU"se, the Latin- 
Scientific Course, the Modern Languages Course, and the 
English Course. For a complete view of the curriculums rec- 

^ Report of the Committee on Secondary School Studies, pp. 36-37 (Bu- 
reau of Education edition). 



CURRICULUMS 



665 



ommended the reader must be referred to the report of the 
committee. Some conception of the relative importance at- 
tached by the committee to the various fields of study may 
be gained from the figures presented in the following table : 

Table CLIII. Curbiculums recommended by the Committee 
OF Ten est 1893. Percentages of Total Time devoted to 
Subject Groups* 



Subject groups 


Curriculums 


Classical 
{per cent) 


Latin-scientific 
(per cent) 


Modem 
Languages 
{per cent) 


English 
(per cent) 


English 


13.75 
48.75 

13.75-17.50 
11.25 
12.50- 8.75 


16.25 
36.25 

13.75-17.50 
22.50 

11.25- 7.50 
Not specifically 
Not specifically 
Not specifically 


16.25 
36.25 

13.75-17.50 
22.50 
11.25- 7.50 

provided 
provided 
provided 


21 . 25-20 . 00 


Foreign language. . . . 

Mathematics 

Natural Science 

Social Science 

Fine Arts 


21.25-22.50 
17.50 
22.50 
17.50 


Vocational subjects. . 
Physical education . . 





* Compiled from Report of the Committee on Secondary School Studies, pp. 46-47 (Bureau 
of Education edition). 



314. Criticism of the committee's recommendations. In 
the light of present knowledge, theory, and practice it is 
obvious that the recommendations of the Committee of 
Ten are open to serious criticism. Without attempting a 
complete analysis of the recommendations we may note 
the following serious objections: (1) the almost complete 
failure to recognize the practical and vocational arts sub- 
jects; (2) the obvious dominance of the college-admission 
function; (3) the differentiation of curriculums on the basis 
of predominant subjects rather than on the basis of the 
activities of life to which pupils will apply their training; 
(4) the over-emphasis on the study of foreign language (re- 
quired of all pupils and demanding from more than one fifth 



666 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

to nearly one half of all the time devoted to formal school 
work) ; (5) the f ailm*e to provide for those pupils who must 
leave school before the secondary-school course can be com- 
pleted; (6) the relatively small amount of flexibility afforded; 
(7) the failure in other ways to provide curriculums well 
suited to the demands of individual differences. 

In spite of all these defects the report of the committee 
did much to aid secondary education in the United States 
through the introduction of valuable standardizing agencies 
at a time when they were sorely needed. Ultimately, how- 
ever, the curriculums proposed could not meet the demands 
of secondary education. The theory and practice of the 
past decade or more have tended to correct the obvious 
defects in the plans recommended by the Committee of Ten. 
The principles involved in the present tendency toward 
reorganization in curriculums are best considered analyti- 
cally rather than historically and descriptively. They are 
considered in later sections of this chapter. 

315. Suggestions from foreign practice. In Chapter VI 
an attempt was made to outline briefly the organization 
of curriculums in Germany, France, and England. Further 
consideration is here pertinent only to point out some special 
features which may be suggested for American practice. 

(1) Secondary education in most foreign countries begins 
at an earlier age and stage than in the United States, com- 
monly beginning at an age between nine and twelve and at 
a stage corresponding to a point between the fifth and 
seventh grades of the American school system. Differences 
in social organization and aims, in educational theory and 
f mictions, in a multitude of other factors, make it difficult, 
or even dangerous, to draw applications to American prac- 
tice from practices in other countries. Nevertheless consid- 
eration of foreign practice suggests that in the organization 
of secondary education, and therefore of secondary-school 



CURRICULUMS 667 

curriculums, we may safely consider at least two grades be- 
low the four grades now commonly considered. 

(2) Vocational and practical arts education have devel- 
oped far more rapidly and successfully in some European 
countries than in America. While it is true that vocational 
curriculums have developed in European countries apart 
from other forms of secondary education and in separate 
schools it is nevertheless true that greater provision has 
been made for vocational education abroad and that we may 
learn much from their practice. 

(3) In most foreign schools more work is required of 
pupils than in the American secondary school. It is not 
improbable that in the organization of the curriculums more 
study than is required at present could be expected. 

II. Principles determining the Organization of 

Curriculums 

Practically every factor and principle discussed in the 
preceding chapters of this book in some degree affects the 
determination of secondary-school curriculums. Some are 
so vitally involved that they deserve special attention here. 

316. The aims and functions of secondary education. 
In Chapter X it was pointed out that every individual is 
destined to participate in three general forms of activity, 
and accordingly that secondary education has three funda- 
mental aims: (1) the social-civic aim, involving the prepa- 
ration of the individual as a prospective citizen and cooperat- 
ing member of society; (2) the economic- vocational aim, 
involving the preparation of the individual as a prospective 
worker and producer; and (3) the individualistic-a voca- 
tional aim, involving the preparation of the individual for 
participation in those activities of life which primarily con- 
cern the proper use of leisure and the development of per- 



668 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

sonality apart from distinctly constructive social ends. 
Since every individual is at once a citizen, a worker, and a 
relatively independent personality, and since those three 
phases of his activity cannot be divorced, it follows that a 
fundamental principle in the organization of curriculums is 
the conception that each of the three aims mentioned must 
be recognized in due proportion and that no curriculum 
which ignores or minimizes any one of those aims can be 
acceptable. Two facts should be noted, however, (a) it 
cannot be assumed that studies in the secondary-school pro- 
gram can be distributed entirely according to the three aims 
suggested; e.g., English may well contribute to all three 
aims: (b) for some groups of pupils, e.g., those postponing 
direct vocational training until the period of higher educa- 
tion, vocational education in the secondary school must be 
conceived as indirect and propsedeutic. 

It was also pointed out in Chapter X that secondary edu- 
cation has certain " functions " or general lines of activity 
which it must follow if the aims above mentioned are to be 
attained. These functions have very important bearing on 
the determination of the curriculums. 

(1 ) The adjustive function of secondary education demands 
that provision be made in the curriculums for media of 
training which involve fundamental principles, skills, etc., 
and suggests the limitations of curricula which involve only 
training for temporary present conditions. 

(2) The integrating function of secondary education is one 
of the most important factors determining the establish- 
ment of essentially identical elements which should form 
a part of every curriculum. It is one of the basic principles 
suggesting the presence of certain subjects (especially 
English and social science) in every curriculum. 

(3) The differentiating function is the basis on which rest 
different curriculums for different groups of pupils, varying 



CURRICULUMS 669 

elements entering into every curriculum to meet the needs 
of different capacities and aptitudes of different pupils 
engaged in that curriculum, and in general the adaptation 
of curriculums to individual differences among pupils and 
the differentiated needs of society. 

{Ji) The propaedeutic function demands recognition of the 
fact that certain forms of education are necessary for the 
successful participation in other forms of education which 
depend on them. Its special importance is foimd, of course, 
in connection with curriculums for secondary-school pupils 
destined to continue their formal education in higher insti- 
tutions. 

(6) The selective function emphasizes two important facts 
in connection with the organization of curriculums: (a) it 
suggests recognition of the fact that it should operate by 
differentiation rather than by elimination; (6) it demands 
recognition of the fact that the bases for curriculums vary 
noticeably in different grades of the school. Thus Table 
LXVIII indicates that pupils destined to go to some higher 
institution after the high school constitute one sixth of the 
entire first-year class, one quarter of the second-year class, 
one third of the third-year class, and one half of the fourth- 
year class. 

(6) The diagnostic function demands recognition of the 
fact that in the organization of curriculums an attempt 
should be made to bring pupils into contact with a relatively 
wide range of subject-matter to the end that they may more 
intelligently and more effectively determine their own needs, 
interests, and capacities. It is, for instance, one reason for 
the introduction of "general" or "elementary" science in 
an early grade, and, possibly, for diagnostic "short-unit" 
courses in the junior high school. 

317. Principles arising from pupils* development. In 
Chapters I and II an attempt was made to analyze factors 



670 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION^ 

involved in the physical and psychological development of 
pupils and their bearing on secondary education. Certain 
deductions were drawn, some of which have important 
bearing on the determination of secondary-school curricu- 
lums. Of particular importance is the principle that the 
development of the pupil is essentially gradual and con- 
tinuous without sudden and abrupt changes at any one 
point to justify radical changes in the curriculums. This 
principle suggests that in the organization of curriculums 
provision should be made for gradual transition from 
grade, with special reference to the transition from one 
division of the system to another. In this connection atten- 
tion may be called to the following elements involved: 

(1) provision for close articulation between the last grades 
of the elementary school and the first grades of the high 
school and between the junior and senior high schools; 

(2) provision for the somewhat gradual introduction of 
" elective " subjects and the gradual expansion of the area 
of variable elements in the curriculums; (3) provision for 
the gradual introduction of *' departmental '* work; (4) pro- 
vision for the gradual introduction of new subjects; (5) 
provision for the close correlation of subjects. 

A second principle arising from the nature of the develop- 
ment of pupils is that the introduction of subjects is in a 
general way only related to the age of the pupils and that 
there is no justification in the theory which postulates that 
certain ages are especially suited to different subjects. For 
example, there is no established justification for the belief 
that subjects requiring a great amount of memorization 
should be introduced relatively early nor that subjects call- 
ing for logical reasoning should be delayed in their introduc- 
tion. On the other hand the manner in which subjects are 
presented is very seriously affected by the stage of progress 
of the pupils. The factors which determine the appropriate 



CURRICULUMS 671 

times for the introduction of subject-matter are (a) the pre- 
vious experiences and training of the pupils, and (6) social 
factors determining the use of education afforded. It is 
needless to say that the organization of materials and the 
methods of teaching must vary widely according to the 
grades in which the subjects are introduced. 

318. Principles arising from individual differences. In 
Chapter III an attempt was made to point out the factors 
involved in the distribution of individual differences among 
secondary-school pupils. It was there shown that pupils 
differ widely in native capacities, acquired abilities, native 
and acquired interests, environmental conditions, and prob- 
able future activities. Recognition of this factor is the basis 
not only of differentiated curriculums but of greater or less 
variation within the limits of any one curriculum. Curric- 
ulum differentiation is determined primarily by the prob- 
able future activities of pupils, especially along vocational 
lines. Differentiation within any curriculum must be pro- 
vided in order to meet still further the demands of individ- 
ual differences in capacities, interests, and aptitudes. 

On the principle that individual differences must be met 
as far as may be possible rest all the variable elements in the 
secondary school — curriculum " election," subject " elec- 
tion," promotion by subjects rather than by grades, pro- 
vision for educational diagnosis, exploration, etc., provision 
for educational guidance (including vocational, social, 
moral, and avocational guidance), provision for economy 
of time in education, etc. 

319. The distribution and classification of pupils. In 
Chapter IV it was shown that of pupils who enter the first 
grade of the four-year high school at the present time about 
one third leave before the beginning of the second grade, 
about one half are gone before the beginning of the third 
grade, about two thirds are gone before the beginning of the 



672 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

fourth year, and less than one third are graduated. Of those 
pupils who enter the seventh grade of the elementary school 
little more than one half reach the first grade of the high 
school, two thirds are gone by the beginning of the second 
year, about three quarters have left by the beginning of the 
third year, and few more than one fifth are left in the last 
grade of the high school. However conditions for the reten- 
tion of pupils may be improved in the future, it must be 
recognized that the factor of elimination vitally affects the 
organization of curriculums in two important respects: (a) 
provision must be made by the organization of flexible 
curriculums, the introduction of varied forms of education, 
and the proper administration of the diagnostic function, 
which will encourage continuance in the secondary school 
longer of pupils who now leave school in large numbers; (6) 
provision must be made for an education as effective as 
possible, as appropriate as possible, and as well rounded-out 
as possible for pupils who must leave school before the 
completion of the course. 

In Chapter IV also an attempt was made to classify pupils 
according to their probable stay in the secondary school and 
according to the character of the future activities of different 
groups. In Table LXVIII figures were presented showing for 
the country at large the proportions of pupils in the various 
grades belonging to different groups, classified according to 
their probable stay in the school. If the classification there 
made be accepted it follows that the following general groups 
of pupils must be considered in the organization of secondary 
school curriculums; 

1. Those who will continue their education beyond the second- 
ary school in some higher institution. This group is composed 
of those who will enter the "higher" professions and whose 
direct vocational education will be provided in the higher 
institutions. Under existing conditions this group consti- 



CURRICULUMS 67S 

tutes approximately one sixth of pupils in the first grade of 
the four-year high school, about one quarter of those in the 
second grade, about one third of those in the third grade and 
about one half of those in the fourth grade. It constitutes 
about one eleventh of those in the seventh grade of the present 
elementary school. 

2. Those who will complete the secondary school course but 
close their formal education at that point. Boys and girls 
belonging to this group will or should enter relatively high 
grade occupations and should be provided preparation for 
those occupations in the secondary school. Their stay 
throughout the full school course permits well-developed 
curriculums which should be definitely directed toward the 
attainment of rather highly developed knowledge or skill 
related to some occupation, a well organized body of asso- 
ciated occupational knowledges and skills, toward the attain- 
ment of a satisfactory social-civic, and toward the develop- 
ment of worthy means of enjoying leisure. This group is of 
proportions in various grades of the school system approxi- 
mately the same as were true of the previous group. Pupils 
graduated from the secondary school are about equally 
divided between those continuing and those not continuing 
their formal education. 

S. Those who remain in school until the close of the eleventh 
grade but who leave school at that point. Pupils belonging 
■to this group will for the most part engage in occupations 
involving knowledges and skills appropriate to agricultural, 
industrial, commercial, or domestic activities. The group 
constitutes (under present conditions) approximately one 
twentieth of the pupils in the seventh grade of the school, 
approximately one tenth of pupils in the ninth grade, about 
one seventh of those in the tenth grade, and about one third 
of those in the eleventh grade. 

4. Those who remain in school through the tenth grade but who 
leave at that point. Their occupations will be much the same 
as those who leave at the close of the eleventh grade. The 
group constitutes (under present conditions) about one tenth 
of those in the seventh grade, about one fifth of those in the 
ninth grade, and about one third of pupils in the tenth grade. 

5. Those who at present receive but one year (or less) of high- 
school education. Pupils belonging to this group must enter 



674 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

occupations in the fields of agriculture, industry, commerce, 
or household work. For the most part they must be recruited 
into the trades and the curriculum organization must recog- 
nize that fact. The group constitutes about one fifth of those 
who are in the seventh grade, about one fourth of those in the 
eighth grade, and about one third of those in the ninth grade 
of the school. 
6. Where the junior-senior high school organization is in opera- 
tion there must be considered in the organization of curricu- 
lums the fact that about two fifths of the pupils entering the 
seventh grade never proceed (under present conditions) as 
far as the ninth grade. Curriculums must there be organized 
for the purpose of retaining those pupils at least through the 
ninth grade and for the purpose of providing curriculums as 
effective as possible for those who must leave at the close of 
the junior high school. 

It is, of course, obvious that the distribution of pupils 
among the groups above mentioned is true for the country 
at large only and will not hold for individual communities. 
The importance to be attached to the different groups must 
vary with the character of the community and the second- 
ary-school population. It is obvious also that the conditions 
at present obtaining wiU not remain constant but that with 
each improvement in the organization of the school system 
the proportions of pupils falling in any of the above-men- 
tioned groups may be radically changed. Whatever be the 
conditions at any time, however, in the organization of cur- 
riculums attention must be paid to the expectancy of stay 
of different pupils in the school and their probable later 
activities. 

320. Constant and variable elements. Certain subjects of 
study are of such imiversal value that they may legitimately 
find a place in practically every curriculum provided and 
be engaged in (under normal conditions) by practically 
every pupil at appropriate, stages in the course, without 
regard for the special activities connected with particular 



CURRICULUMS 675 

occupations. Such subjects may well be organized in the 
same way, cover the same field, and be taught in the same 
manner for all pupils in all curriculums. For convenience 
such studies may be termed " constants.'* 

Other subjects of study in the secondary school are of 
such limited, contingent, or specialized value that they 
should belong to one of three groups of studies: (1) those 
found only in certain specialized curriculums; (2) those found 
in several or all curriculums but with certain modifications; 
(3) those not required of all pupils nor necessarily required 
in any one curriculum, but open to the free election by any 
pupil in whatever curriculum enrolled. The entire group 
may for convenience be termed ** variables "; those in group 
(1) may be termed ** curriculum specials," those in group (2) 
may be termed " curriculum modifiables," and those in 
group (3) may be termed " free electives." On the proper 
distribution of the constants and several variables to a great 
extent depends the success of curriculum organization. 
Suggestions concerning their proper distribution are pre- 
sented in following sections. 

321. The determination of constants. Two somewhat re- 
lated yet separate factors determine the constants which 
should enter into the curriculums of the secondary school. 

(1) Fundamental, universal, and direct values character- 
ize some subjects of , study. Thus, whatever be the special 
field of one's activities, certain elements of language use are 
fundamentally important. The development of ability to 
use language (the mother tongue) as an instrument for think- 
ing and for the expression and interpretation of thought 
must be an aim common to all curriculums and must form 
a part of the education of every individual. Likewise social- 
civic-moral activities must be engaged in by all individuals 
and must, therefore, be a part of every curriculum in the 
secondary school. As a minimum this should include a study 



676 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of the history of the United States, civics, some elements of 
government, literatm*e, and, in the junior high school, so- 
cial and economic geography. In this group also must be 
considered health education, together with " general " or 
" elementary " science where one primary basis of its organi- 
zation is the inclusion of such common scientific knowledges 
as enter into the activities of almost all individuals. Further, 
we must consider as belonging to this group of studies, 
particularly in the junior high school, such universally im- 
portant elements of arithmetic, penmanship, spelling, and 
the like, as should be judged necessary for all and have not 
reached the proper stages of development in the lower 
grades. Finally, we must recognize, wherever possible, 
certain universal elements of aesthetic appreciation, e.g., 
musical appreciation and literature in the junior high school. 

A second factor affecting the determination of constants 
is found in the integrating values attached to some studies, 
especially to the social studies and to the mother tongue and 
its literature. Fortunately for economy in education subjects 
of study which contribute most to this end are the same as 
some suggested by the values suggested in the preceding. 

On the basis of such criteria we may suggest as constants 
in the curriculums of the secondary school the following: 
(a) English throughout the junior and senior high schools; 
(6) some social science in each grade of the junior and senior 
high schools; (c) health study throughout the junior high 
school in some form, physical training through exercise in 
all grades of the secondary school; (d) " general science " 
in the junior high school; musical appreciation in the junior 
high school. These should be considered as irreducible 
minima in the group of constants. 

322. The determination of variables. Three important 
factors must determine the amount and character of the 
variables in secondary-school curriculums. 



CURRICULUMS 677 

(1) Individual differences among pupils in capacities, 
acquired abilities, interests, and futures is the primary factor 
determining variables in secondary-school studies. To ignore 
their existence and the character of their distribution is to 
come directly into conflict with nature. Nevertheless domi- 
nant differences only can be considered, since the effective 
and economical administration of curriculums demands that 
a sufficiently large group of pupils having somewhat simi- 
lar capacities, abilities, interests, and probable futures be 
afforded to justify the formation of classes for instruction in 
any subject. Within the limits of effective and economical 
administration the number and kinds of variables introduced 
into secondary-school curriculums should be as large and 
diversified as possible. Any subject of study which meets the 
needs of a sufficiently large number of pupils to permit 
effective organization of classes and which possesses educa- 
tional value is justified in the secondary school. 

(2) The differentiated needs of society demand that 
variable elements enter the curriculums of the secondary 
school. No single group of activities in life can justifiably 
monopolize the field of secondary education. Studies dealing 
with every important phase of life's activities should be 
represented in the program of the secondary school when- 
ever they can be suited to the capacities of pupils and meet 
real needs on their part. 

(3) The size of the secondary school and available means 
especially affect the secondary school variables. Differen- 
tiated education is directly conditioned by the number of 
pupils involved. In nine tenths of the secondary schools of 
the country the number of variables possible is reduced to 
a minimum by the fact that the enrollment is too small to 
permit differentiation and by the fact that financial assets 
are narrowly limited. 

323. Rigid versus flexible curriculums. In the history of 



678 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the high school during the past half -century there is observa- 
ble a tendency to swing alternately from the one extreme of 
rigidity in curriculum organization to the other extreme of 
almost entire flexibility and back again. During the early 
days of the high school curriculums were rather distinctly 
separated and permitted little overlapping or cross-cutting. 
During the latter part of the nineteenth century curriculums 
were rather loosely administered and in some cases all lines 
of curriculum demarcation were practically nominal. With 
the recent change in the basis of curriculum differentiation 
from subject-matter to individual needs and post-scholastic 
destinies there has developed a tendency to organize rather 
definitely separated curriculums which permit a relatively 
small amount of overlapping or cross-cutting. The advan- 
tages of exclusive curriculums are readily seen: (1) such a 
practice permits a much more effective organization of the 
work of different curriculums and its adaptation to special 
ends which are largely vocational; (2) it permits a more 
homogeneous grouping of pupils; (3) it permits the more 
effective direction of teaching; (4) as a result of those and 
other factors involved it permits the securing of better results 
as far as the special features of the different curriculums are 
concerned. The disadvantages of exclusive curriculums are 
no less obvious, however: (1) such a practice considers 
primarily differentiation according to dominant interests 
(largely vocational) and neglects other elements of differ- 
entiation, by delimiting the range of subjects which may be 
studied by pupils engaged in any one curriculum, thus 
reducing the flexibility of the school work; (2) it tends to 
introduce differentiation where advantages are small (some- 
times dangerous) and disadvantages are great; (3) it pre- 
supposes a rather early determination of life interests and 
life careers; (4) it presupposes that interests remain fairly 
constant; (5) in nine tenths of the secondary schools of the 



CURRICULUMS 679 

country the rigid separation of cmriculums is impractical if 
not impossible. 

All things considered it would appear to be reasonable 
that curriculums should be characterized by a relatively 
high degree of flexibility in the early grades of the secondary 
school, by a relatively high degree of rigidity in the later 
grades, and by a gradual transition from the one status to 
the other. Such a practice would recognize in the early 
gi-ades of the secondary school (a) the desirability of a rela- 
tively wide range of subject-matter favorable to educational 
diagnosis, prognosis, and guidance — themselves conducive 
to the possibility of greater definiteness in later work; (b) the 
desirability of not anticipating too much the decision of 
vocational or other choices; and (c) the desirability of per- 
mitting as much adaptation to individual differences as may 
be practicable. At the same time it would recognize in the 
later grades of the school the desirability of definitely deter- 
mined vocational work, the necessity for specialization and 
concentration along definite lines, and definite propaedeu- 
tic training for those whose education will continue beyond 
the secondary school. It would further recognize that in 
the later grades of the secondary school groups of pupils 
may more readily be classified and their special needs 
determined. 

It should be recognized that the work of the last three 
grades of the secondary school should represent rather clear- 
cut and definitely directed training and in those grades the 
lines of curriculum differentiation may be fairly distinct. 
Before the beginning of the second year of the present four- 
year high school the rigid demarcation of curriculums is un- 
desirable. In the first year of the four-year high school pro- 
vision must be made for adaptation, diagnosis, and guidance 
and the curricula should be as flexible as possible. The 
primary functions of the junior high school (where the 



680 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

junior-senior secondary schools exist) preclude any rigid 
demarcation of curriculums, at least in the earlier grades. 
Jt is by no means improbable that formally separated 
curriculums are entirely out of place, though insistence must 
be placed on the widest possible variation in subject offer- 
ings. In general it may be said that provision for individual 
differences in the first six grades is for the most part re- 
stricted to differentiated teaching methods, that provision 
for individual differences in the junior high school should 
involve differentiated subject matter and teaching method, 
and that in the senior high school should be added definitely 
differentiated curriculums. However, from stage to stage 
in the system the transition should be gradual. 

324. Continuity and concentration. One of the most 
common criticisms made by foreign observers of our second- 
ary education and by our own citizens involves the failure 
to secure thoroughness and the tendency to foster super- 
ficiality. This is an ever-present danger where an attempt 
is made to adapt education to individual differences, where 
curriculums are flexible, and variables constitute important 
parts of curriculums. It must be recognized that a system 
of curriculum organization and administration which per- 
mits a scattering of units of study, allows the pupil to study 
a number of rather isolated subjects, to begin several studies 
without carrying any one of them beyond the introductory 
and elementary stages, to attain a smattering of many sub- 
jects with failure to learn any one of them thoroughly, is 
fundamentally wrong. To avoid such results it is necessary 
that limits be set to the variables which are found in any 
student's program. One way of accomplishing this is to 
require sequential or advanced work in some specified fields. 
A method better adapted to the demands of individual 
differences is to require that advanced work be done in 
some one or more fields with the selection of the field of 



CURRICULUMS 681 

" concentration " dependent on the individual student. 
Thus a " major " may be required in some one of the fields 
not considered " constants " in the curriculums — natural 
science, mathematics, foreign language, fine arts, or the 
various fields of practical and vocational arts. At least one 
such major should be required of every " normal " pupil. 

325. Required, preferential, and elective subjects. Edu- 
cational practice in the past has commonly (a) made the 
completion of a prescribed amount of work of definitely 
specified character an absolute prerequisite for entrance to 
the secondary school, and (6) made an absolute prescription 
of certain subjects in the curriculums of the secondary 
school. As a result pupils in large numbers have been re- 
tained in the elementary-school grades long after they have 
ceased to receive appreciable benefit through the studies 
there ofi"ered, after they have passed far beyond the normal 
age for elementary-school grades, and after they have 
chronologically, physiologically, and socially grown far be- 
yond the groups of pupils with whom they are associated. 
Inevitably this leads to undesirable retardation and ulti- 
mately to elimination before they have come into contact 
with any forms of education other than those of the ele- 
mentary school. Doubtless admission to the secondary 
school must always be determined primarily by "peda- 
gogical age." Nevertheless, this criterion should be supple- 
mented by other criteria of chronological, physiological, and 
social age, and all pupils so mature chronologically, physio- 
logically, or socially that they may benefit more by some 
forms of secondary education than by the limited offerings 
of elementary education, should be admitted to some form 
of secondary education. Such a practice necessarily means 
that no single subject of study of the secondary school can 
be considered absolutely and invariably " required.'* Hence 
" constants " in the curriculums must be considered as 



682 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

" preferential " rather than " required." Here it is prob- 
able that some distinction must be made between diploma 
" requirements " and curriculum requirements. Limitation 
should not be placed on the courses of study which the 
individual pupils may take. Limitations involving " re- 
quired " subjects must be placed on requirements for a 
diploma. For normal pupils " required " subjects are 
appropriate. For somewhat atypical pupils the absolute 
requirement of specified subjects cannot justly be made 
without the expectation of retardation, elimination, and 
loss of time, energy, and money. For the entire pupil group 
of the secondary school subjects of study which are con- 
sidered of universal value must at best be considered as 
" preferential." For " normal " pupils certain subjects of 
study may well be considered " required." 

In some ways it is unfortunate that the term " elective " 
has been applied to subjects of study falling in the group 
of " variables " — unfortunate because the term implies 
that the selection of " variables " can be or should be left to 
the judgment of the pupils for the most part. " Election " 
of subjects or of curriculums is peculiarly unfortunate where 
provision is not made (a) for training in the earlier grades 
which may provide a basis for intelligent selection, and (b) 
for educational guidance. A necessary accompaniment of 
differentiation in subject matter and in curriculums is pro- 
vision for diagnostic training and educational guidance. 

326. Immediate and deferred values. A glance at the 
curriculums proposed by the Committee of Ten discloses 
the fact that they assume the completion of the entire course 
on the part of most pupils entering the school and that the 
value of the first-year's work is largely dependent on later 
study. Recognition of the fact that large proportions of 
pupils must leave the secondary school after one, two, or 
three years of study demands that, as far as is possible. 



CURRICULUMS 683 

curriculums should be so organized as to subordinate de- 
ferred values to immediate values so that the maximum of 
benefit may be secured by those who must leave school early 
and at the same time that progressively greater benefit may 
accrue to those who continue. This is in part a matter of 
subject organization and teaching method, in part a matter 
of curriculum organization. The principle applied to the 
former factor suggests that in the earlier grades of the 
secondary school subject be organized and taught with 
special reference to the major and more important elements 
immediately applicable to the activities of life and more 
technical, specialized, and refined elements postponed to 
further study in later grades. Applied to the factor of 
curriculum organization the principle suggests (a) the in- 
troduction in early grades of some subjects specifically 
designed for immediate use by those who will leave school 
early; (6) the organization of such courses as " general " 
science, community civics, etc., in the junior high school 
grades for the distinct purpose of providing values imme- 
diately available. 

iii. cxjerictjltjm organization based on 
Principles suggested 

327. Preliminary explanation of curriculxims. It is ob- 
vious that the character of curriculum organization in the 
secondary school of any given community must be condi- 
tioned by the size of the pupil population, its character, and 
the resources of the school and community, so that it is 
impossible to determine any single curriculum organization 
which is appropriate in toto for all secondary schools. As 
a working basis the curriculum organization outlined below 
assumes a secondary-school population sufficiently large and 
suflSciently diversified to make possible the extensive offer- 



684 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ing suggested and sufficient resources to allow the organiza- 
tion and offering of any form of education for which there 
exists a reasonable demand and which the best educational 
theory can justify. By a process of elimination where neces- 
sary or desirable it is possible to outline the curriculum 
organization of any secondary school on the basis of the 
plan suggested. 

The curriculum organization outlined below considers 
the school work of the six grades following six grades of 
elementary education. For convenience the organization is 
outlined on the basis of two three-grade divisions which 
would correspond to but not necessarily involve a three- 
grade junior high school followed by a three-grade senior 
high school. An examination of the organization outlined 
will show that relatively slight modifications would adapt 
the scheme to the eight-four system now commonly found, 
provided the work of the seventh and eighth grades were 
reorganized as suggested. The latter reorganization appears 
desirable whatever be the form of external administration 
and divisional separation. 

In the organization outlined for grades seven, eight, and 
nine formal separation of studies into curriculums is pur- 
posely avoided on the ground that any organization of 
formally separated curriculums tends seriously to endanger 
flexibility, to encourage premature specialization, and to 
interfere seriously with the diagnostic and exploring fxmction 
of the earlier grades. Failure to make a formal differentia- 
tion into separate curriculums is far from meaning that 
different groups of pupils will not pursue differentiated lines 
of work. The absence of curriculum names and classifica- 
tions is designed solely to obviate the tendency for pupils to 
select special lines of work too early, to continue in whatever 
lines they may have entered through inertia, ignorance, or 
following the lines of least resistance, and to prevent the 



CURRICULUMS 685 

tendency of school officers permanently to catalog pupils 
in any category wherein they may once have been placed. 
Formal curriculum demarcation has no place in the early 
grades of the junior high school and for few groups even in 
the last grade. At the most definitely separated curriculums 
should be provided only in the last grade of that school and 
for those pupils only who will clearly leave at the end of 
the junior high school. 

In the organization outlined certain studies are considered 
as constants to be studied by all pupils of normal progress 
and as studies required for the secondary-school diploma. 
It is to be recognized, however, that those mature pupils 
who have been admitted to the seventh grade without the 
successful completion of the regular work of the first six 
grades may be allowed to study any combination of subjects 
which their limited attainments, capacities, and interests 
may permit. Such pupils are to be considered as atypical, 
destined in the majority of cases to leave school before the 
completion of the secondary-school course, and entitled to 
receive at best certificates of the work which they have 
done rather than the diploma of the school, unless later 
work may justify their readmission to full standing. 

328. Curriculum organization for the junior high school. 
Below are outlined two forms of curriculum organization 
which are suggested as possible schemes for the junior high 
school — grades seven, eight, and nine. Neither, of course, 
is to be considered as the necessary or even the most de- 
sirable form of organization. The sole purpose in presenting 
the two forms of organization is to illustrate possible ways 
in which principles previously considered may be applied. 

Form I illustrates a possible curriculum organization for 
a junior high school where no provision is made for super- 
vised study or combined recitation-study periods. The 
number of class meetings is assumed to correspond to present 



686 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

practice in the seventh and eighth grades, i.e., about thirty 
to thirty-five class meetings per week, the length of each 
period being approximately thirty minutes. 

Table CLIV. Cubeiculum Organization for a Junior 
High School: Form I 



Grade! 



Grades 



Grade 9 



Periods 



Studies 
Conntants : 

English 6 

Geography (3), history 

(2) 5 

Physiology and hygiene 3 

Arithmetic ^ 5 

Physical education. ... 2 
Music (appreciation) . . 2 
Practical arts: domes- 
tic arts (girls); man- 
ual arts (boys) 6 

Total constants 27 

Variables : 
English: various 

branches for those 

deficient 2 

Arithmetic: for those 

deficient 2 

Foreign language 5 

Fine arts 3 

Music (technical) 3 

Commercial studies. . . 5 

Clerical studies 6 

Industrial studies 6 

Domestic studies 5 

Agricultural studies. . . 5 

Total variables 4r-8 



Periods 



Studies 
Constants : 

English :•.••• ^ 

History (U.S.), civics. 5 

General science 5 

Mathematics: (A) com- 
bined arithmetic, al- 
gebra, geometry; or 
(B) commercial 

arithmetic 4 

Physical education. ... 2 
Music (appreciation). . 2 

Total constants 23 



Periods 



Variables : 
English: various 

branches for those 

deficient 2 

Foreign language 5 

Fine arts 3 

Music (technical) 3 

Commercial studies . 6-10 

Clerical studies 5-10 

Industrial studies. . . 5-10 
Domestic studies . . . 6-10 
Agricultural studies. 6-10 



Total variables. . . 8-12 



Studies 
Constants : 

English. .^. . . .^. 6 

Community civics .... 5 

General science 5 

Physical education. ... 2 

Music (appreciation). . 2 



Total constants 19 

Variables : 

Foreign language 5 

Mathematics , . 5 

History 4 

Finearts 5 

Music (technical) 3 

Commercial studies . 6-15 

Clerical studies 6-15 

Industrial studies. . . 6-15 
Domestic studies .... 6-15 
Agricultural studies. 6-15 



Total variables . . 12-15 

Notes: 1. The numbers of periods set are merely approximations and intended to be sug- 
gestive rather than fixed. 

2. The practical arts constant in the seventh grade may be made diagnostic 
"short-unit" courses if desired. 

8. It is not expected that all schools, perhaps not any school, will provide all the 
studies listed under variables. The extended list is presented for selection 
according to the needs and resources of any given school. 

4. It is expected that the more able pupils may pass directly from the eighth grade 
into the senior high school. 

6. Definitely separated curriculums may be organized for special groups of pupils 
who will leave school at the close of the ninth grade, if that course appears 
justified. 



Form II illustrates a possible curriculum organization 
where provision is made for combined recitation-study 
periods. The entire school day is assumed to be seven hours 
in length — one half -hour each day for assembly, opening 



CURRICULUMS 687 

exercises, music, and auditorium work, one half-hour each 
day for lunch, and six hours net (including time for changing 
classes) for class meetings, each period being one hour in 
length (inclusive of time for change of classes) . The same 
program may be encompassed in a six-hour day where each 
period is made fifty minutes in length. The curriculum 
organization of Form I may be adapted to that of Form II 
with a few modifications in the number of periods assigned 
to some studies. 

Table CLV. Curriculum Organization for a Junior 
High School: Form II 

Grade 7 Grade S Grade 9 

Studies Periods Studies Periods Sttidiea Periods 

Constants : Constants : Constants : 

English _. 5 English 5 English ...... .^ 5 

Geography and history 5 History and civics. . . 5 Community civics 4 

Arithmetic 5 General science 4 General science 4 

Physiology and hygiene 3 Mathematics...^ 4 Physical education. .. . 2 

Physical education. ... 2 Physical education.. . 2 

Practical arts 5 

Total constants 25 Total constants ... 20 Total constants 15 

Variables 6 Variables 10 Variables 15 

Notes: The notes appended to Form I (Table CLIV) apply here. The same studies aa 
those in Form I are meant here. The variables are the same here as for Form I. 

329. Curriculum organization of the senior high school. 
Detailed analysis of the curriculum organization of the 
senior high school in grades ten, eleven, and twelve is ren- 
dered very difficult in the abstract for a number of reasons: 
(a) the major part of the work of those grades should con- 
sist of differentiated studies involving many variables, the 
enumeration of which would be of little worth for any 
given secondary school; (b) the character of the variables 
must differ in different communities, especially with refer- 
ence to vocational studies; (c) in the majority of secondary 
schools complete offerings are economically impossible and 
selections must be made rigorously; (d) the distribution of 
studies in grades ten to twelve must be dependent to some 



688 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

extent on the distribution of studies in grades seven to nine, 
so that all possible combinations cannot be presented in any 
single and simple tabulated scheme. 

The general form of curriculum organization in the senior 
high school may be readily outlined. By the beginning of 
the tenth grade it should be possible to group pupils for the 
most part into divisions according to their dominant inter- 
ests, abilities, and destinies, at least in a tentative fashion. 
Curriculum differentiation, with definite though not exclu- 
sive lines of demarcation, should be possible and should be 
determined according to the dominant interests, abilities, 
and destinies of pupils. A somewhat comprehensive organi- 
zation would then provide for the curriculum groupings 
suggested in this list. 

(1) For those entering business and clerical occupations — 
the business and clerical curriculums, including the follow- 
ing more or less overlapping curriculums: (a) various forms 
of office and clerical occupations which emphasize such 
studies as bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting, corre- 
spondence, circularizing, filing, etc.; (b) merchandizing, 
selling, and store service; (c) any other group of business or 
clerical arts. 

(2) For those entering industrial occupations — the 
industrial curriculums, including cxu'riculums preparing 
for (a) building trades; (6) wood-working trades; (c) metal- 
working trades; (d) machinist trades; (e)-{?) any other 
industrial* occupations desirable and practicable according 
to the needs of pupils and society. 

(3) For those entering agricultural occupations — agri- 
cultural curriculums, including those involving preparation 
for (a) general farming; (b) animal husbandry; (c) - (?) 
special phases of agricultural work according to the needs 
of pupils and society. 

(4) For girls entering domestic occupations and other 



CURRICULUMS 689 

girls not enrolled in other curriculums — domestic curricu- 
lums, including those involving (a) preparation for house- 
keeping and home-making; (b) the preparation for nursing 
as a separate occupation; (c) the preparation of skilled 
workers in institutions calling for domestic and personal 
service. Some parts of these cmriculums may well overlap 
industrial occupations in the textile and clothing trades. 

(5) For pupils entering higher institutions — preparatory 
curriculums including those preparing (a) for the academic 
college; (b) the technical or other special college; (c) the 
normal school. 

(6) For pupils whose future activities cannot yet be 
determined with any assurance — the general curriculum. 
In this curriculum the basis of the selection of studies 
should involve fundamental and diagnostic forms of 
education. 

(7) - (?) In some of the largest schools it is practicable 
to establish other special curriculums, e.g., for music and 
fine arts. 

In all this curriculum organization it should be recognized 
that three "areas" are to be considered: (a) the area of con- 
stants; (b) the area of curriculum restriction; (c) the area 
of free election. The area of constants includes that portion 
of the work of the senior high-school work which is to engage 
the attention of all pupils of regular standing. Here belongs 
the study of English, social science, and physical training. 
The area of curriculum restriction includes that portion of the 
work of the senior high school which provides for the special- 
ized education appropriate to the various special curricu- 
lums. The area of free election includes that part of the 
school work which should be left to the unrestricted choice 
of the pupil whatever special curriculum may engage his 
particular attention, save only in so far as he may not pos- 
sess qualifications necessary successfully to pursue any 



690 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

study. While it is diflicult to determine definitely the exact 
proportions which should be allotted to these three areas, it 
may be suggested that approximately two fifths of the total 
time should be devoted to constants in the curriculum or- 
ganization, approximately two fifths to the coordinate stud- 
ies of some one curriculum, and approximately one fifth to 
studies according to the unrestricted election of the pupil. 
These last studies may or may not be elected within the 
field of his special curriculum interest. Diagramatically 
the approximate distribution of these three areas may be 
represented as follows. 

Figure W. Illustrating the General Form of Curriculum 
Organization in the Senior High School 



constants 



s 
cur 



PECIA 
RICUL 



L 
UMS 



FREE election 



i 



PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. Analyze the curriculum of the last two grades of the present elementary 
school. How does the existing curriculum compare with that suggested 
for the first two grades of the junior high school? (Cf. Fourteenth Year- 
book of the National Society for the Study of Education, part i; Sixteenth 
Yearbook^ part i.) 



CURRICULUMS 691 

2. Consider the curriculum organization of the junior high school with 
reference to its diagnostic and exploring function. 

3. Trace the influence of college admission requirements on the curriculum 
organization of the secondary school. 

4. Compare the curriculum organization of higher schools in Prussia, 
France, and the United States. 

5. What measures can you suggest to prevent scattering and superficiaUty 
in American secondary education? 

6. .What are the arguments for and against the absolute prescription of 
certain studies in all curriculums and for aU pupils? 

^7. For any given community work out an ideal curriculum organization 
for its secondary schools. 

8. How is curriculum organization affected by factors of retardation, 
acceleration, and elimination? 

9. Trace the influence of proper recognition of the factor of individual 
differences on the curriculum organization of secondary schools. 

10. Show the bearing of theories of development on the curriculum organi- 
zation of the secondary school. 

11. Analyze the influence of social factors on the curriculum organization 
of the secondary school. 

*^12. Compare and criticize the curriculum organization of three actual 
secondary schools, one in an agricultural community, one in an in- 
dustrial city, and one in a residential city. 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Davis, C. 0., High-School Courses of Study. 

Eliot, C. W., Changes Needed in American Secondary Education, Publica- 
tions of the General Education Board, Occasional Papers, no. 2. 

Flexner, A., A Modem School, Publications of the General Education 
Board, Occasional Papers, no. 3 

Hollister, H. A., High-School Administration, chap. vn. 

HoUister, H. A., High School and Class Management, chap. xv. 

Johnston, C. H., "Curriculum Adjustments in Modem High Schools," 
School Review, vol. xxii, pp. 577-90. 

Johnston, C. H., "What is Curriculum Differentiation," Educational Ad- 
ministration and Supervision, vol. n, pp. 49-57. 

Koos, L. v.. The Administration of Secondary-School Units. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education, Report of Committee on Organization and Adminis- 
tration, Bureau of Education Bulletin. 

National Education Association, Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary 
School Studies. 

National Education Association, Commission on the Reorganization of 



692 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Secondary Education, Report of the Reviewing Committee^ Bureau of 

Education Bulletin. 
National Education Association, Report of the Committee on the Articulation 

of High School and College, Proceedings of the National Education Associa- 
tion (1911), pp. 559-67. 
Newlon, J. H., "The Need for a Scientific Curriculum Policy for Junior and 

Senior High Schools," Ediccational Administration and Supervision, 

vol. Ill, pp. 253-68. 
Rapeer, L. W., "A Core Curriculum for High Schools," School and Society, 

vol. V, pp. 541-49. 
Sachs, J., The American Secondary School, chap. ni. ' 

Snedden, D., "The High School of To-morrow," School Review, vol. xxv, 

pp. 1-15. 
Snedden, D., pp. 214-31» 745-74, of Monroe, P. (Editor), Principles of 

Secondary Education. 
Yocum, A. D., "The Determinants of the Coiu-se of Study," Proceedings of 

the National Education Association (1914), pp. 223-35. 
Young, J. R., "Reorganization of the High-School Curriculimi," Educa^ 

tional Review, vol. un, pp. 122-37. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE ORGANIZATION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

(continued) 

I. Some Phases of External Organization 

330. The place of the secondary school. For the individ- 
ual education is a unitary and continuous process which 
predicates no separate stages of elementary, secondary, and 
higher education except in the most general senses. For this 
reason a system of education which proceeded gradually 
and without points of abrupt transition would be the ideal. 
In such a system secondary education could be considered 
merely an indistinctly defined division which developed 
gradually out of an indistinctly defined elementary edu- 
cation and merged gradually into an indistinctly defined 
higher education. However, where children must be edu- 
cated in groups the exigencies of school economy and effi- 
cient administration necessitate the organization of the 
school system into divisions which externally at least are 
more or less separate. Thus for younger pupils in the lower 
grades a large number of buildings must be provided, so 
situated as to minimize the distance to be traveled: for 
older pupils fewer buildings are required and distance is a 
matter of less importance. For younger pupils studies are 
relatively uniform: for older pupils differentiated education 
must be provided. For younger pupils the single teacher 
plan is possible and appropriate: for older pupils specialists 
in various fields are necessary and appropriate. These and 
numerous other factors sooner or later in the school system 
necessitate changes in educational procedure which require 



694 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

special forms of school organization and result in adminis- 
tration divisions. 

If it be recognized that the exigencies of organization and 
administration necessitate the division of the school system 
into two or more departments, the problem at once presents 
itself — At what point or points should the division or divi- 
sions come? In Chapter VII were adduced certain consid- 
erations suggesting that our present organization is faulty 
in many respects and that a better scheme would be as 
follows: elementary schools for children of ages approxi- 
mately six to twelve (grades one to six) and secondary 
schools for pupils of ages thirteen to eighteen (grades seven 
to twelve), with an organization such as to provide junior 
high schools for pupils of ages approximately thirteen to 
fifteen (grades seven to nine) and senior high schools for pu- 
pils of ages approximately sixteen to eighteen (grades ten 
to twelve). Some of the more important considerations in- 
volved may be summarized briefly here. 

(1) Pupils in grades one to six are predominantly imma- 
ture physiologically: in grades ten to twelve they are pre- 
dominantly mature: in grades seven to nine they are in 
a transitional stage as far as the factor of puberty is con- 
cerned. At the age of twelve less than five per cent of the 
pupils are post-pubescent : at the age of sixteen more than 
four fifths of the pupils are post-pubescent: ages thirteen 
to fifteen are markedly transitional ages as far as puberty 
is concerned.^ 

(2) Elimination does not begin to manifest its influence 
strongly until about the age of fourteen — the close of the 
compulsory attendance period in most States. In the school 
it becomes noticeable by the beginning of the sixth grade 
and is at present very strong in grades seven, eight, and 
nine. It is important that some of the phases of secondary 

^ Cf. chapters i and n. 



ORGANIZATION 695 

education be operative before the majority of pupils leave 
school.^ It is also important that the broader field of sec- 
ondary education should have an opportunity to exert its 
influence on the retention of pupils. 

(3) Individual differences are manifest in all stages of 
education. They become greater and increasingly impor- 
tant as pupils progress through the grades. While there is 
no single point at which one may say that they demand 
special attention, it is probable that special consideration 
should be given that factor and special provision should be 
made as early as the seventh grade. Certain it is that such 
provision is now delayed too long. It is to be noted that 
effective provision for individual differences cannot be made 
unless fairly large total groups of pupils are involved. 
Provision for individual differences to the extent demanded 
by secondary education cannot be made effective in the 
ordinary elementary schools. 

(4) Before the pupil enters on rather specialized education 
in the later grades of the system he should have some oppor- 
tunity to try out and test his capacities and interests. Pro- 
vision for such diagnostic education becomes an important 
fimction of the junior high school, leaving the major part 
of specialized education to the senior high school or, in some 
cases, to the college and university. 

(5) The junior high school also provides for a possible 
somewhat roimded out education for those pupils who must 
leave school at an early date. 

(6) Of the various forms of organization in the second- 
ary school the *' three-three plan " appears most desirable. 
Its most serious competitor is the " two-four plan." The 
latter plan is objectionable for several reasons, (a) It fos- 
ters the perpetuation of many evils which have grown up 
around the present organization. It is improbable that 

* Cf . chapter iv. 



696 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

undesirable methods of teaching and of organization which 
have developed in connection with our present first-year 
work in the high school can be remedied as long as the ex- 
isting organization of the high school is retained, (b) The 
break which is now in evidence between the eighth and 
ninth grades corresponds in time with the close of the com- 
pulsory attendance period. The " three-three '* plan " strad- 
dles " that critical point to some extent and thus distrib- 
utes eliminating factors, (c) The " two-four " plan does not 
correspond well with the factor of development at puberty. 

One great danger threatens the success of the '* six-three- 
three " plan — that through the organization of three de- 
partments in the school system education may lose unity 
and continuity. Throughout it must be kept in mind that 
administration should always conform as far as possible 
to educational demands rather than require that educa- 
tional demands be subordinated to administration. This 
means that in the division of the system into three depart- 
ments the greatest care should be exercised to avoid breaks 
in the education of the pupils. 

Particularly important in this connection are problems 
of articulation between the elementary school and the 
junior high school and between the junior high school and 
the senior high school. It is imperative that the work of the 
seventh grade be carefully articulated with the work of the 
sixth grade. Promotion from the elementary school to the 
junior high school should be based primarily on pedagogical 
progress, i.e., the accomplishment of the work of the first 
six grades. This should be supplemented, however, by atten- 
tion to other measures of maturity, e.g., chronological age, 
psychological age, physiological age, and social age. Re- 
gardless of pedagogical achievement a pupil so mature 
(mentally, physiologically, chronologically, or socially) that 
he can secure greater benefit from some phases of the junior 



ORGANIZATION 697 

high school work than from continuance in the elementary 
school, should be promoted arbitrarily to the junior high 
school. In general the same principle should be observed 
in promotion to the senior high school. 

It has been suggested at times that the character of the 
junior high school work should be determined by the needs 
of those who will not go to the senior high school. Any such 
conception is totally unjustiJ&ed. The junior high school 
should certainly provide an effective education for pupils 
who will not enter the senior high school. This cannot 
mean, however, that its responsibility for the education of 
those who will continue their education can be neglected. 
On the other hand, there is constant danger that the work 
of the junior high school may be determined by the demands 
of the senior high school. Important though the needs of 
those who are to enter the upper school may be, they can- 
not cause us to lose sight of the needs of those who must 
leave at the close of the junior high school. The character 
of the work of the senior high school must be determined by 
the capacities, attainments, and needs of the pupils who 
come from the junior high school. The senior high school 
must not dominate the work of the junior high school. 

One of the weakest links in the system of education in 
America is the continuation school. In many communities 
no form of continuation education is provided at all. In 
communities which do make some provision for such edu- 
cation it is largely confined to " evening school " work. In 
many communities which provide evening schools the char- 
acter of the work is so unsatisfactory that it scarcely de- 
serves the name education. In 1914-15 communities of 
over 5000 population reported nearly 700,000 pupils en- 
rolled in evening schools. ^ Probably less than 500,000 pupils 

^ Report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1916), vol. n, 
pp. 232-38. 



698 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

actually attended evening schools for any appreciable period 
in that year. Compared with the number of boys and girls 
of ages appropriate for continuation education and not 
enrolled in the regular day schools that number is insig- 
nificant. Since attendance at school up to the age of about 
fourteen is almost universally compulsory in the country, 
it is clear that the greater part of continuation education 
(except for foreigners) must be of secondary character. In 
this country we have scarcely begun to recognize the impor- 
tance of continuation education for those pupils who leave 
school early. In the reorganization of the school system 
definite and adequate provision must be made for the articu- 
lation of the junior high school in particular with forms of 
continuation education. 

331. Comprehensive versus special-t3rpe secondaiy 
schools. The development of specialized curriculums for 
various groups of pupils in the secondary school has created 
this important problem in the organization and administra- 
tion of secondary education — should secondary education 
be provided through comprehensive or composite schools in 
which all phases of the work are included in one unified 
scheme of organization and administration, or should it be 
provided through several special-type secondary schools, 
each restricted to a single curriculum or related group of 
curriculums? Within recent years there has been manifest 
a growing tendency in large cities to establish a series of 
special-type high schools, e.g., commercial high schools, 
technical high schools, industrial schools, practical-arts 
high schools, and the like. With the development of the 
junior high school there has even been a tendency in some 
cities to establish special-type junior high schools. In 
Chapter XX the position was taken that the organization 
of clearly differentiated curriculums is out of place in the 
junior high school, except possibly for special groups of pupils 



ORGANIZATION 699 

who must leave school at the close of the ninth grade. If 
this contention be sound, it follows that special-type jimior 
high schools cannot be justified. The problem reduces it- 
self, therefore, to the present four-grade high school or the 
senior high school of the reorganized system. 

First to be considered is the possibility of special-type 
high schools. In considering problems of secondary educa- 
tion in America no error is more common than that of 
assuming the large secondary school in a populous com- 
munity as typical. The census of 1910 showed that there 
were 226 cities in the country having each a population of 
25,000 or over, distributed as follows: 117 cities having a 
population of from 25,000 to 50,000; 59 cities having a popu- 
lation each of from 50,000 to 100,000; 42 cities having each 
a population of from 100,000 to 500,000 (the estimate for 
1915 indicates 51) ; 5 cities having each a population of from 
500,000 to 1,000,000 (the estimate for 1915 indicates 6) ; and 
3 cities having each a population of over 1,000,000. Cer- 
tainly cities having a population of less than 25,000 cannot 
consider the establishment of more than one high school of 
the present type or more than one senior high school, and 
few cities of less than 50,000 population can economically 
establish more than one such high school. One hundred 
cities would probably be a liberal estimate of the number of 
communities which might be able to establish systems of 
special-type high schools. Even then many of those cities 
could not establish more than two high schools. Any com- 
plete system of special-type high schools is an impossibility 
in all but a very few of the largest cities in the country. For 
the country at large the only possibility of a thorough-going 
system of special type high schools would be found in the 
total abandonment of local community schools and the 
development of a system of regional high schools. The most 
enthusiastic advocate of special-type high schools would 



700 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

scarcely recommend such a procedure. If further evidence 
is wanted, it should be supplied by the figures presented in 
Table XLIX. Those figures indicate that nearly eleven- 
twelfths of all the public high schools in the country are 
located in communities of less than eight thousand popula- 
tion each, those high schools having on the average from 
sixty to sixty-five pupils each. 

The problem under consideration is thus limited to a few 
very large cities. It, therefore, remains to consider the 
relative advantages and disadvantages of comprehensive or 
composite high schools and special-type high schools in 
very populous communities. Among the principal advan- 
tages claimed for the special-type high school are the follow- 
ing: (a) the work of each school may be definitely directed 
along specialized lines; (b) more homogeneous groupings of 
pupils are possible; (c) various phases of the school work may 
be coordinated and concentrated on definite ends; (d) by 
bringing together all pupils engaged in one group of related 
curriculums more effective use of the school plant and the 
teaching force; (e) where vocational education is involved a 
higher degree of vocational interest may be developed in the 
special-type vocational school; (/) many matters such as the 
arrangement of the daily program, the assignment of rooms, 
and other elements of school machinery, may be more 
readily and more effectively administered in the special- 
type school; {g) in schools limited to special forms of educa- 
tion the school plant may be better adapted to the needs of 
special curriculums, especially where practical arts and vo- 
cational work require specially constructed rooms, special 
apparatus, and special organization; (h) by concentrating 
all special curriculum work in special schools such education 
is made more economical. 

Among the principal objections to special-type secondary 
schools may be mentioned the following: (1) They tend 



ORGANIZATION 701 

toward a dangerous overemphasis on those special phases of 
education which form the basis of the special schools and 
toward the subordination of aims and functions not limited 
to special curriculums. (2) They tend to diminish the inte- 
grating function of secondary education by the separation of 
various social and vocational groups. In the past the social 
factor involved in the establishment of special-type schools 
has operated commonly to interfere seriously with the 
proper development of vocational education as well as with 
other forms of secondary education. (3) The establishment 
of special-type schools commonly leads to a reduction in 
the flexibility of programs and curriculums by lessening the 
range of variables in each school and by separating curricu- 
lums so that even the necessary and desirable amount of 
cross-cutting becomes impossible. (4) The effective admin- 
istration of a system of special-type schools presupposes that 
real educational or vocational preferences determine the 
choice of schools by pupils or for pupils. As a matter of fact, 
many other factors affect the choice of school, some of which 
are quite irrelevant and may be antagonistic to real educa- 
tional or vocational needs. Thus many pupils choose the 
high school which is nearest their homes, others the school 
to which their friends have gone or are going, others the 
school providing social attractions or having successful ath- 
letic teams. Hence in many cases the very purpose of the 
special-type high school is defeated by factors not readily 
controlled by school authorities. (5) Once such a choice of 
school is made, transfer to another school is relatively un- 
common, however ill-adapted the work of the school chosen 
is to the capacities or interests of the pupil. No system of 
educational organization and administration can prevent a 
certain loss of time and energy when mistakes are made in 
the choice of educational offerings. However, where transfer 
from curriculum to curriculum is made difficult, as in the 



702 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

special-type school organization, the correction of original 
mistakes is rendered difficult. (6) Under a special-type high 
school organization it is assumed that dominant interests and 
aptitudes may be determined at an early age and that they 
remain essentially constant. Both assumptions are contrary 
to fact. With the establishment of a jimior high school pro- 
viding opportunities for diagnostic education and with an 
effective plan of educational guidance in operation, the situa- 
tion may be improved. However, educational prognosis can 
never be perfect and for that reason flexibility in secondary- 
school organization and administration is imperative. (7) It 
is an axiom of education that attendance at school, es- 
pecially where legal mandate is not operative, is in propor- 
tion to the accessibility of schools. The maintenance of 
special-type high schools necessarily increases the distance 
to be traveled by many pupils. This means much time lost 
in travel, much expense for that travel, and a decrease in the 
attracting power of the high school. In this connection it 
may be noted also that the interest of parents, of the pupils, 
and of the community in the school is lessened where schools 
are at a distance from the homes. (8) The economy claimed 
for special-type high schools is by no means established. 
Granted that the expense of operating such schools is eco- 
nomical as far as the school budget is concerned, there still 
remains the problem of expense to the pupils. On the 
assumption of two hundred days in the school year and a 
traveling expense of ten cents each day per pupil, the cost to 
parents per year per pupil becomes twenty dollars • — a 
sizable fee for education in a free public school. If five hun- 
dred pupils are compelled to incur such expense because of 
the distance of the special-type schools the total added cost 
of education for that group becomes ten thousand dollars. 
The figures are, of course, merely illustrative, but they sug- 
gest the possibility that the economy of special-type schools 



ORGANIZATION 703 

is sometimes at the expense of pupils attending — a situation 
quite inconsistent with the conception of pubKc education 
in America. 

On the whole it appears : (a) that special-type junior high 
schools are unjustifiable; (b) that special-type four-grade 
high schools or senior high schools are practicable in a very 
few large cities only; (c) that the comprehensive or composite 
or consolidated high school should be the standard type even 
in the largest cities. The problem is closely related in all 
cases to the problem of the organization of vocational edu- 
cation considered in the following section. 

In cities where two or more high schools are maintained 
it is not always possible to provide all curriculums in all 
schools, in as much as the number of pupils enrolled in some 
curriculums is so small as to render uneconomical separate 
groups in each high school. Here the lesser of two evils must 
be chosen and certain curriculums may be organized in one 
school only with provision for the attendance at that school 
of pupils from other districts who should be enrolled in those 
curriculums. The comprehensive or composite high school, 
however, should remain the standard type. 

A somewhat analogous problem is involved in small 
country high schools. All desirable curriculums cannot be 
offered in every small high school. Effective organization 
would suggest that certain curriculums be offered in selected 
schools only and that provision be made for the admission 
to these schools of pupils from nearby communities whose 
needs require such specialized curriculums. The dis- 
advantages of such a policy are obvious. It requires but 
little observation of rural conditions, however, to realize 
that the majority of such objections arise from the necessary 
limitations of high-school education in sparsely settled 
districts under any form of educational organization and 
administration. 



704 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

It must be recognized that in the past special curriculums 
have not been well organized and administered in many 
comprehensive or composite high schools. The development 
of special-type high schools has been due in part to this fact. 
It should be noted, however, that the past and the present 
are but parts of a period of reorganization and experimenta- 
tion in the field of vocational education. Even in special- 
ized vocational schools education to date has been far from 
satisfactory. It should be noted also that the easiest path 
to reform in any special field of education is always through 
the isolation of that field and concentration on it. Imme- 
diate benefits, however, are not always ultimate gains and 
the shortest way through to a single goal is not always the 
best. No important reorganization can become effective in 
a day. The adjustment of modern education must take time 
and we shall be fortunate if important modifications in the 
school system become effective within a school generation. 
Nevertheless it must be recognized that the effective opera- 
tion of the comprehensive or composite high school cannot 
materialize until (a) the various special curriculums within 
such a school are considered as entitled to equal opportunity 
and (6) each curriculum or group of related curriculums is 
organized and administered so as to make it effective and 
maintain its integrity. As long as our present system of 
curriculum organization and administration is maintained 
much of the effectiveness of secondary education will be 
jeopardized. The efficiency of the comprehensive or com- 
posite high school depends in no small degree on the proper 
organization and administration of its curriculums. 

332. Organization of vocational secondary education. 
Within the past quarter of a century educational sociology 
has recognized the legitimacy and importance of the voca- 
tional-economic aim of secondary education. However, agree- 
ment as to its legitimacy and importance has been far more 



ORGANIZATION 705 

general than agreement as to its organization and adminis- 
tration. Here three major problems call for consideration. 
(1) The first of these problems involves the relation be- 
tween vocational education and other forms of education. 
Commonly this problem is considered as involving the re- 
lation between " vocational " and " liberal " education, 
sometimes on the assumption of an antagonism of those two 
forms of training. The indefiniteness and ambiguity of the 
term "liberal" renders it almost profitless to consider the 
problem in such terms. A better line of approach to the 
problem is that outlined in Chapters IX and X where it was 
suggested that the three fundamental aims of secondary 
education are the social-civic aim, the economic- vocational 
aim, and the individualistic-a vocational aim — involving 
the training of the individual as a citizen, as a worker, and 
for the worthy use of leisure. Since each individual must 
participate in the three forms of activity implied in those 
aims and since to a considerable extent those aims overlap, 
all three aims must be recognized in the education of every 
secondary-school pupil. Hence the complete separation of 
vocational education can never be justified, and such state- 
ments as the following must be interpreted with care. 

I think the conviction is steadily growing that any form of 
vocational education, to be effective, must develop its own teach- 
ing processes as well as means of administration, and that on the 
whole, both as to methods of instruction and instruments of ad- 
ministration, it must be quite independent of general or so-called 
*' liberal" education. This must be so because of the fundamental 
unlikenesses between the ends or purposes of hberal education and 
the ends or purposes of vocational education.^ 

Better stated is the following: 

From the standpoint of social economy it seems probable that 
the tendencies described above are wrong; that, for the sake of 

^ Snedden, D., Problems of Secondary Education, p. 57. 



706 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

integral development, all the valid aims of education should be 
kept in view during the entire preparatory period. Society de- 
mands that each adult, within the limits of his capacity, shall be 
physically well, shall be vocationally capable, shall have civic and 
moral insight and motive, and shall keep alive some cultural or 
aesthetic interests. But to insure this all-round development, it 
is essential that each part of it receive more or less continuous 
attention; it may well be doubted, for example, whether it is wise 
that a youth of sixteen should devote himself exclusively to any 
kind of vocational preparation, to the exclusion of all social and 
cultural interests; but there is also reason to suppose that much 
of our secondary education, which utterly ignores vocational con- 
siderations during the formative period, not less seriously handi- 
caps its students,^ 

The real problem involved in the relation of vocational 
education and other forms of education concerns (a) the 
amount and character of vocational education to be pro- 
vided and (b) the stage of the introduction of specialized 
vocational education. These considerations lead at once to 
the second problem of the organization of vocational educa- 
tion. 

(2) Education in the elementary school up to the sixth 
grade and for pupils up to the approximate age of twelve 
cannot and should not be considered as involving vocational 
education in any other than an indirect way. By the be- 
ginning of the junior high school it is possible to make a start 
in " prevocational " education. Within the junior high 
school should be provided opportunity for some diagnostic 
education touching on vocational education in part, some 
vocational information of the *' survey of vocations " type, 
and, for some at least, experience with the tools, processes, 
materials, and products of certain occupational fields. Here 
there is no place for highly specialized vocational training 

1 Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D., The Administration of Public Educa- 
tion in the United States, pp. 419-20. Quoted with the permission of the 
publishers. The Macmillan Company. 



ORGANIZATION 707 

in processes. The acquisition of vocational outlooks, in- 
terests, and sympathies, the development of underlying 
knowledges and fundamental skills of a broad and general 
character, the beginning of education along lines which may 
later become specialized — these forms of vocational edu- 
cation are all that can and should be looked for in the junior 
high school. In all this, however, it should be recognized 
that concrete experiences, not book work and the abstract 
class recitation, must be the foundation of vocational prep- 
aration in the junior high school. First-hand contact with 
the concrete realities involved in the field of occupations is 
a necessity. 

In the senior high school direct vocational education must 
be provided through some highly specialized curriculums. 
With proper organization of diagnostic education and '* pre- 
vocational " training in the junior high school, a basis for 
effective direct vocational education in the upper school 
should be established. For some groups of pupils (practi- 
cally all pupils whose education is not to be continued in the 
college or other higher institution) definite and specific 
vocational training looking toward the development of 
specialized vocational skill becomes an important desid- 
eratum in the senior high school, though other forms of 
education still have their proper place as suggested in 
Chapter XX. - 

The continuation school so neglected in American edu- 
cation should be given its legitimate and necessary place in 
coordination with the junior and senior high schools. Here 
again, while the function of the continuation school is by no 
means restricted to vocational education, that form of 
training assumes importance. In such a school vocational 
education should be of a definitely specialized character, 
aiming to develop occupational skill to a degree of efficiency 
which is marketable. 



708 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Vocational education, if it is to be really effective and 
warrant the attention of the school, must be related defin- 
itely and functionally with the occupational world for which 
it is designed to prepare. This means that it must be 
severely " practical," not " theoretical," that it must em- 
ploy the actual tools, machinery, processes, and standards 
of the occupations, that training must be provided through 
teachers who are themselves experts with successful experi- 
ence in their respective occupations, and that the training 
provided must involve first-hand contact with concrete 
experiences in the processes of the appropriate occupations. 
These considerations at once lead to the problem discussed 
in the following. 

(3) One of the most difficult and most persistent problems 
of the organization of vocational education involves the 
question whether it can be provided best in special curric- 
ulums in comprehensive or composite high schools, in 
special-type high schools, or through cooperative part-time 
education. In the preceding section were considered the 
relative advantages of comprehensive or composite high 
schools and special-type high schools. It remains to con- 
sider the relative advantages and disadvantages of vo- 
cational education provided in the high school itself and 
vocational education provided through cooperative part- 
time education in which the pupil spends a part of his time 
in the occupation itself under the direction of the school and 
of the industrial officers. Here the most important factors 
involved are those discussed below. 

(a) Vocational education in the high school itself must 
always be limited to a relatively small number of the more 
important occupations and to relatively few phases of 
activity common to special parts of those occupations. In 
many smaller communities it is all but impossible to pro- 
vide any effective program of vocational education in the 



ORGANIZATION 709 

high schools because of the small numbers of pupils with 
widely varying vocational needs and interests. The range of 
cooperative part-time vocational education is limited only 
by the occupations foimd in the community and the possi- 
bility of securing effective cooperation on the part of those 
controlling the occupations. 

(b) Most forms of vocational education in the high school 
are very expensive, mistaken attempts on the part of school 
officers to make vocational courses " pay for themselves " 
to the contrary notwithstanding. In many high schools the 
authorities deceive themselves and the public through ri- 
diculously absurd bookkeeping and inventories. Industrial 
courses in particular are very expensive. The original ex- 
pense for equipment is great, the cost of materials consumed 
and in many cases wasted is high, and the constant repair 
and replacement of equipment are expensive. In this con- 
nection it should be noted that effective industrial education 
cannot be afforded unless machinery and other equipment 
are kept " up to date." In the progressive factory of to-day 
much of the machinery is " scrapped " about every ten 
years and depreciation is reckoned at the rate of about five 
per cent the first year and much larger proportions there- 
after. Much of the equipment in the high school is in use 
but a small portion of the time so that overhead expense is 
very great. The expense of vocational secondary education 
can be reduced to a minimum through a system of part- 
time cooperative work wherever such a system is possible. 
Further, part-time cooperative education makes possible 
some forms of vocational training whose expense would 
otherwise be prohibitive. In all this problem it should be 
recognized that ordinary estimates of the cost of vocational 
education in the high school are very untrustworthy, in part 
because of failure to account properly for depreciation of 
equipment and for other overhead charges, in part because 



710 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the returns through the sale or use of products are grossly 
overestimated. 

(c) In a paragraph above importance was attached to the 
necessity of relating vocational education as closely as 
possible to the occupations for which it is designed to pre- 
pare. It is very doubtful that this can be done effectively 
as long as vocational education is confined to the high-school 
building, though much may be accomphshed where it is 
carried on through " projects." Through cooperative part- 
time education emphasis is placed on first-hand contact with 
the work-a-day world of actual occupations, practice is 
stressed instead of theory, industry is real not simulated 
(or dissimulated), and the vocation is learned in a real voca- 
tional atmosphere. Here, however, some distinction must 
be made between various forms of vocational education. 
Some forms of clerical work, some phases of agricultural 
education, some forms of household-arts work may be car- 
ried on with a fair degree of effectiveness under ordinary 
high-school conditions. Other forms of those same branches 
cannot be provided effectively without first-hand connec- 
tion with the occupations themselves. Industrial education 
in particular is very difficult, if not actually impossible, in 
isolation from real industry. 

(d) The slow development of cooperative part-time vo- 
cational education and the restriction of vocational educa- 
tion to the high school itself are due largely to the relative 
ease with which vocational education may be partially or- 
ganized in the high school and the difficulty of organizing 
and administering cooperative education. The crux of voca- 
tional education is found in its organization and administra- 
tion. The special difficulty of cooperative education, even 
where those who control factories, stores, and other occu- 
pational enterprises are ready to cooperate, hes in the fact 
that those who control and are responsible for education 



ORGANIZATION 711 

cannot exercise any degree of control over the vocational 
situation and for that reason cannot assure satisfactory- 
vocational education. Obviously any appreciable degree 
of control over the vocational situation itself can neither be 
expected nor desired. Cooperative part-time vocational 
education must always rest on a somewhat precarious foot- 
ing, dependent for its success or failure on conditions which 
lie beyond the control of the educational authorities. In 
addition, extensive administrative machinery is necessary 
for the effective supervision of cooperative part-time educa- 
tion and this fact sometimes limits the value of other bene- 
fits suggested in preceding paragraphs. 

On the whole it appears desirable that such forms of voca- 
tional education as can be provided equally well or nearly 
as well in the school as in the occupation itself under part- 
time arrangements would better be provided in the school 
where supervision and direction can best be controlled, e.g., 
much of the clerical arts. Where it seems that the imme- 
diate contact with actual work-a-day conditions are more 
important, e.g., in much of the industrial work, cooperative 
part-time vocational work should be provided wherever 
local conditions make such cooperation possible and bene- 
ficial. In this it is probable that much more should be done 
than is now attempted. It should be observed, however, 
that great care must be exercised in the organization of 
cooperative part-time education and that it should never be 
attempted except where definite binding agreements can be 
made with those responsible for occupational enterprises. 
The high school undertakes a great responsibility when it 
entrusts an important part of the pupils' education to com- 
mercial enterprises. Education must not be exploited by 
industry. 



712 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

II. Some Phases of Internal Organization 

333. The organization of instruction. While detailed 
analysis of the instruction to be provided in the secondary 
school as far as teaching methods are concerned lies out- 
side the scope of this book, a few important matters are 
so intimately related to the effective organization of sec- 
ondary education that they deserve brief consideration 
here. 

(1) In the past the materials of high-school subjects of 
study have been organized and taught according to the 
demands of the studies as logically organized fields of knowl- 
edge. In the reorganization of secondary education problems 
of subject organization and teaching methods must be 
approached from a different point of attack. The primary 
criteria of subject organization are (a) the psychological 
demands of the learning process as determined by the men- 
tal development and previous experiences of the pupils, and 
(b) the demands of the activities of life in which the pupils 
will utilize the various elements of their education. This 
does not necessarily mean that all subjects will lose their 
logical organization. What it does mean is that whether 
or not any given subject will be so organized and taught is 
to be determined by the more fundamental considerations 
mentioned. In some cases the entire organization of mate- 
rials and methods must be changed. In other cases subjects 
will be organized and taught much according to the best 
practice of the present. In all probability the desirable 
form of education in the junior high school will demand 
radical reorganization of subjects of study in such a way as 
to emphasize elements most likely to prove of value to in- 
dividuals in the commoner activities of life. The greater 
specialization of education in the senior high school will 
permit and justify the somewhat comprehensive and logical 



ORGANIZATION 713 

organization of subject-matter with appropriate teaching 
methods emphasizing intensive study in special fields. 

(2) Closely related to the matter considered in the pre- 
ceding paragraph is the matter of immediate and deferred 
values. The tendency of secondary education in the past 
has been to emphasize deferred values at the expense of 
immediate values, to emphasize in the organization of ma- 
terials and teaching methods values which depend for their 
manifestation on education continued throughout the school 
or extended over a period of years. We are beginning to 
realize that pupils in large numbers leave school before the 
close of the full course and that for them the subordination 
of immediate to deferred values means decided educational 
loss. As at present organized many subjects are of little 
value to the pupil unless he studies them for several years. 
Such studies must be reorganized and taught so that their 
usefulness begins for the pupil at the start and becomes of 
progressively greater value as they are studied longer. The 
much-maligned "general studies" have distinct value in the 
earlier grades of secondary education, i.e., in the junior high 
school. 

(3) One of the most promising of recent reforms in second- 
ary education involves the reorganization of classroom in- 
struction in the form of combined recitation, teaching, and 
study. The term applied to the newer form of classroom 
instruction — "supervised study" — is in many respects a 
title unfortunately chosen. A better term would be "su- 
pervised learning." In brief the plan involves increased time 
allotted to the class meeting, with provision for "study" 
under the direct supervision of the class teacher. Intro- 
duced at first for the primary purposes of providing oppor- 
tunity for study under favorable conditions and of affording 
opportunity to train pupils in the art of study, it bids fair to 
revolutionize the class meeting into a vastly more effective 



714 PHINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

instrument of education. Its advantages are numerous: 
(a) it reduces the amount of study to be done outside of the 
school where conditions are frequently such as to render 
effective study impossible; (b) it provides for study under 
the most favorable conditions during school hours by bring- 
ing the pupils' study under the direct supervision and guid- 
ance of the class teacher; (c) it affords an opportunity for 
the teacher to train pupils in effective methods of study both 
as related to learning in general and as related to specific 
studies; (d) it makes possible more effective provision for 
individual differences among pupils of the same class; 
(e) it makes possible the transformation of the class meeting 
from a period largely devoted to testing to a period devoted 
to real instruction; (/) it makes possible an effective distri- 
bution of the time to "recitation," the presentation of new 
material, and study; (g) it permits the "checking up" of the 
work of the pupil at every step in the learning process, thus 
practically eliminating the necessity for testing pupils dur- 
ing the class "recitation," making dishonest work all but 
impossible, and enabling the teacher to give aid at the point 
v/here aid is most needed. The possible disadvantages of the 
plan are : (a) the increased length of the school day necessi- 
tated; (b) the probable necessity for a slightly larger teach- 
ing staff; (c) the possibility of a somewhat increased cost 
arising from those two changes; (d) the danger that teach- 
ers may fail to recognize the real objects to be attained and 
permit mechanization of the class meeting to defeat the 
purposes of supervised learning: (e) the danger that teachers 
may aid the pupils to such an extent as to diminish the 
stimuli for initiative, responsibility, and independent work. 
The disadvantages are slight and the dangers are amenable 
to effective supervision. In the junior high school particu- 
larly "supervised learning" affords a means for a gradual 
transition from extensively supervised and rather depend- 



ORGANIZATION 715 

ent work of the elementary school to work demanding a 
greater degree of independence, responsibility, and initia- 
tive in the senior high school. 

334. The organization of extra-curriculum education. 
The secondary school has constantly tended to draw a 
sharply dividing line between education through the cur- 
riculum and education through various activities which have 
developed in connection with school life apart from curricu- 
lum demands. This tendency to isolate the two fields of 
education cannot be justified. Properly organized and di- 
rected the extra-curriculum activities of the secondary 
school can be made instruments of education by no means 
inferior to many phases of the work included within the 
curriculum proper. Athletic and other games, musical 
organizations, debating societies, class societies, the various 
social organizations of the school — all these and other 
forms of extra-curriculum activity can be so organized as 
to make important contributions to the social-civic, the 
economic-vocational, and the individualistic-avocational 
aims of secondary education. In some schools they have been 
correlated so closely with parts of the curriculum as to form 
an integral part of secondary education. In other schools 
they are regarded either as necessary evils to be discouraged 
or as side issues which curriculum demands must con- 
stantly combat. Fortunately secondary-school authorities 
are beginning to recognize the peculiar educational possibil- 
ities of extra-curriculum activities and the necessity of 
welding the formal and informal activities of school life into 
a system of integrated education. Thus an advance step 
is taken in coordinating and unifying the experiences of 
the educand and in breaking down the barriers between 
the school and life. 

Several educational possibilities are found in extra-cur- 
riculum activities to a degree not approached by the major- 



716 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

ity of curriculum activities. Among those possibilities may 
be emphasized the following: (a) The majority of extra- 
curriculum activities have developed from strong spontane- 
ous interests which the school needs, not to arouse, but only 
to utilize and direct. (&) Social training through actual 
participation in cooperative activity is an essential element 
in most forms of extra-curriculum education. This element 
is at a minimum in most curriculum work, (c) Extra-cur- 
riculum activities greatly extend the field of avocational 
education, (d) Experience has shown that interest in certain 
forms of extra-curriculum activities can do more than any 
other one factor to unify the pupil body of a school. 

Athletic clubs, walking clubs, and the like, afford some 
of the most valuable opportunities for physical education 
and should be closely correlated with curriculum demands 
for physical training and hygiene. Magazine clubs, the 
school paper, the dramatic club, the debating club, and 
similar activities afford valuable opportunities for training 
in English and should be closely coordinated with the Eng- 
lish courses. Musical clubs of all sorts should become parts 
of the school work in music. The social-civic and moral 
ends of education find educational opportunities of great 
value in all forms of extra-curriculum activities wherein 
participation in cooperative enterprises plays a part. The 
individualistic-avocational aim of education finds oppor- 
tunities in all extra-curriculum activities. Even the eco- 
nomic-vocational aim of education is not without some op- 
portunities in this field, e.g., through musical organizations, 
the school paper, the dramatic club, etc. 

Beyond question secondary education should encompass 
the extra-curriculum activities and, as far as possible, bring 
them within the scope of secondary-school organization. 
However, two somewhat opposed dangers must be guarded 
against: (a) the danger that the strong spontaneous interests 



ORGANIZATION 717 

of extra-curriculum activities may lead to their overempha- 
sis; (6) the danger that, in our attempts to harness extra- 
curriculum activities and control them for educational pur- 
poses, we may destroy the very interests which have given 
those activities some of their greatest value as educational 
instruments. If these two dangers be guarded against ex- 
tra-curriculum activities may be made some of the most 
powerful instruments of secondary education. 

335. Educational diagnosis and guidance. Doubtless 
educational diagnosis, prognosis, and guidance have always 
played some part informally in the organization of sec- 
ondary education. Doubtless too all education may be 
conceived in some senses as involving a measure of diag- 
nosis, prognosis, and guidance. However, deiSnite plans 
for the organization of those phases of education only within 
recent years have invited the attention of educators, stimu- 
lated thereto by the changing character of the school pop- 
ulation, by changes in educational theory, and by such social 
changes as were outlined briefly in Chapter IX. The move- 
ment received its first great impetus along the line of voca- 
tional guidance in the endeavor to provide a better means 
of adjustment between vocational capacity or aptitude and 
vocational opportunity, between the individual and his oc- 
cupation, between the school and occupational life. As the 
movement developed two facts became clear: (a) that from 
the viewpoint of the school at least vocational guidance is 
but one phase of educational guidance, which in its broader 
sense includes vocational guidance, moral guidance, social 
guidance, avocational guidance, and educational guidance in 
the narrower sense; (6) that all educational guidance is pri- 
marily and fundamentally a matter of providing a wide va- 
riety of educational contacts and experiences so organized 
as to meet the needs of individual differences and to afford 
a basis of actual experience for the intelligent selection of 



718 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

vocation and avocation, for the determination of moral and 
social conduct, and for the wise choice of educational offer- 
ings. The older conception of guidance involved primarily 
a system of educational advice (in some cases what practi- 
cally amounted to educational compulsion) with particular 
reference to the selection of a vocation. The newer con- 
ception of guidance involves primarily a system of educa- 
tional experiences designed to permit the pupil to explore, 
try out, and thus gain some understanding of his own capaci- 
ties, aptitudes, and interests, to open up to the pupil's view 
the opportunities of life and of education, and, as far as 
possible, to make him acquainted with the privileges, de- 
mands, and responsibilities of life in its various phases, 
vocational and avocational, social, civic, and moral. Only 
when such a basis of experience is provided can any system 
of guidance by advice be safe or effective. 

The diagnostic and directive function of education is 
important at all stages. Specially important, even critical, 
however, is the stage of education covered by the secondary 
school, and in particular by the junior high school. There 
the point is approached where children must leave school in 
large numbers, dominant interests, sometimes evanescent, 
sometimes permanent, develop rapidly under the increasing 
influence of the outside world, pupils must prepare some for 
immediate entrance into occupations, others for the rather 
specialized work of the senior high schools, and numerous 
other factors call for diagnosis, prognosis, and guidance. 
Hence it is that in the junior high school special attention 
must be paid to the organization of education in such a way 
as to lay a basis for educational guidance along the lines 
suggested above. This means : (a) the widest possible range 
of educational offerings suited to the maturity of pupils, 
opening up as many fields of life's activities and of educa- 
tional opportunities as possible, and testing every important 



ORGANIZATION 719 

capacity and interest of pupils; (6) such methods of teach- 
ing, forms of organization and administration, as may con- 
tribute to the diagnostic and directive function of educa- 
tion; (c) opportunity for gradually increasing concentration 
in some fields looking forward to specialization in the senior 
high school or in some cases toward direct entrance into 
life; {d) the organization of certain courses primarily on the 
basis of their diagnostic and prognostic possibilities, e.g., 
"survey of vocations," and possibly coordinated "short- 
unit" courses; {e) an effective form of administrative ma- 
chinery for educational guidance through advice, counsel- 
ing, and possibly occupational placement. 

336. The social organization of the school. The American 
democracy depends for its existence and success on the 
social consciousness and social cooperation of its citizens. 
Unless the school can make a significant contribution to the 
development of social consciousness and social cooperation 
it must fail in one of its most important purposes. In the 
endeavor to make that contribution great responsibility must 
rest on the secondary school wherein is trained that some- 
what select group of individuals who must ultimately exert 
the greatest influence on our social and civic life. There 
three important fields of opportunity are found for training 
to social consciousness and social cooperation: (a) in certain 
studies of the curriculum and in the socialized recitation; 
(6) in many of the extra-curriculum activities of the school; 
(c) in the government or control of the pupil body. Of these 
three fields the first two have already been considered. 
The third deserves special consideration here. 

The traditional methods of governing the pupil body have 
been those of rule and authority on the part of school offi- 
cers and obedience to rules and submission to authority on 
the part of pupils. There can be no question that ultimate 
authority must always rest with the school officers. Neither 



720 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

can there be any doubt that in many respects secondary- 
school pupils are far too immature to exercise complete 
control over their own actions in the life of the school. Any 
unlimited "student seK-government " scheme is foredoomed 
to failure. The failure of many honestly attempted "stu- 
dent self-government" plans and of many fraudulent plans 
masquerading under that title testify to its impracticability. 
Nevertheless it must be recognized that there is only one 
way to acquire social-cooperativeness and that is through 
social cooperation, that there is only one way to learn how 
to control one's conduct and that is through meeting the 
responsibility for that conduct, that there is only one way 
for groups to attain the ability for self-government and that 
is through actual participation by the group in its own gov- 
ernment. Socially conscious and socially cooperating Amer- 
ican citizens cannot be developed through the school unless 
in the school those citizens are trained through actual par- 
ticipation in the cooperative activities of the school. Self- 
governing American citizens can be developed only through 
some degree of exercise in actual self-government. The 
secondary school cannot and should not avoid its responsi- 
bility in this important form of education. 

The emphasis above laid on training in self-government 
through self-government should not lead to the conclusion 
that the control and discipline of the pupil body in the 
secondary school can be left to the pupils. It should, how- 
ever, lead to the conclusion that from the beginning of 
education in the lower grades and in increasing degree 
throughout the school responsibility for various forms of 
self-government should be placed on the pupils themselves 
as fast as it may appear that they are able to bear the burden 
successfully. It should also lead to the conclusion that 
wherever possible and as far as possible the cooperation of 
pupils, teachers, and administrative officers should be en- 



ORGANIZATION 7^1 

couraged in the pupil government of the school. In no 
other way is there afforded any warrant or hope that the 
secondary school can make its proper contribution to the 
development of that social consciousness and social cooper- 
ation necessary for the existence and success of our Ameri- 
can democracy. 

PROBLEMS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION 

1. What are some of the means which may be employed to minimize the 
educational disadvantages of administrative breaks in the school 
system? 

2. Make a comparative study of the organization of secondary education 
in two cities of somewhat similar character in general but having one 
a system of comprehensive or composite high schools, the other a 
system of special- type high schools. 

3. Make a survey of the possibilities for cooperative part-time vocational 
education in any community, 

4. What are the arguments for and agaiust specialized vocational educa- 
tion in the junior high school? 

5. What means can you suggest of providing greater opportunities for 
secondary education in rural districts? 

6. Make a comparative study of contuiuation schools in the United States 
and in Germany, France, and England. 

7. Analyze the evening-school situation in the United States or in any 
one State. 

8. What changes in the articulation of secondary and higher education 
would be necessitated by the organization of a junior-senior high- 
school system? 

9. Show how the extra-curriculum activities of the secondary school might 
be more effectively developed. 

10. For any secondary school analyze the changes which would be necessi- 
tated by the introduction of a system of supervised learning. 

11. Make a study of various plans which have been elaborated for the 
organization of vocational guidance. (Cf. Brewer, J. M., and Kelly, 
R. W., A Selected Criticd Bibliography of Vocational Guidance.) 

12. Make a study of schemes for "student self-government" in secondary 
schools. 

13. What are the arguments for and against an undivided school system of 
twelve grades? 



722 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Note: References given in previous chapters cover most of the problems 
considered in this chapter. To those references may be added the following 
which deal with educational guidance and with supervised learning. 

I. Educational guidance: 

Bloomfield, M., Youth, School, and Vocation. 

Bloomfield, M. (Editor), Readings in Vocational Guidance. 

Bloomfield, M., The Vocational Guidance of Youth. 

Bloomfield, M., "Vocational Guidance and the High School," chap. 

XXIV of Johnston, C. H. (Editor), The Modern High School. 
Brewer, J. M., "Vocational Guidance in School and Occupation," 

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 

vol. Lxvii, pp. 54-63. 
Brewer, J. M., The Vocational Guidance Movement. 
Davis, J. B., Vocational and Moral Guidance. Contains bibliographies. 
HoUingworth, H. L., Vocational Psychology. 
Ruediger, W. C, "Avocational Guidance," chap, xxv of Johnston, 

C. H. (Editor), The Modern High School. 

Extended bibliography: Brewer, J. M., and Kelly, R. W., A Selected 
Critical Bihliogra'phy of Vocational Guidance. 

II. Supervised learning: 

Allen, I. M., "Experiments in Supervised Study," School Review, 
vol. xxv, pp. 398-411. 

Breslich, E. R., "Teaching High-School Pupils to Study," School 
Review, vol. xx, pp. 505-15. 

Breslich, E. R., "Supervised Study as a Means of Providing Supple- 
mentary Individual Instruction," Thirteenth Yearbook of the Na- 
tional Society for the Study of Education, part i, pp. 32-72. 

Colvin, S. S., An Introduction to High-School Teaching, chap. xvii. 

Earhart, L. B., Teaching Children to Study. 

Hall-Quest, A. L., Supervised Study. Contains bibliography. 

Hall-Quest, A. L., "Present Tendencies in Supervised Study," 
Educational Administration and Supervision, vol. i, pp. 239-56. 

McMurry, F. M., How to Study. 

Parker, S. C, Methods of Teaching in High Schools, chap. xvi. 

Extended bibliography: Hall-Quest, A. L., Supervised Study, pp. 
409-16. 



tA 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Academy, general treatment, 170- 
84; relation to the public high 
school, 196-97; relation to higher 
education, 305. 

Acceleration of pupils, general treat- 
ment, 123-27. Cf. also 26-27, 290, 
696-97. 

Accrediting system of admission to 
college, 324-36. 

Adjustive or adaptive function of 
secondary education, 376-77, 668. 

Administration of secondary educa- 
tion, in general throughout the 
book, under various titles. Cf . Aims 
and functions, Program of studies. 
Curriculum, Organization of secon- 
dary education, Secondary educa- 
tion in relation to elementary edu- 
cation. Junior high school. Secon- 
dary education in relation to 
higher education. Individual dif- 
ferences. Acceleration, Retarda- 
tion. Elimination, Classification 
of secondary-school pupils. Social 
principles. Comprehensive high 
school. Special-type high school. 
Vocational education. Continua- 
tion education. Part-time educa- 
tion. Supervised study. Social or- 
ganization, etc. 

Admission to college, general treat- 
ment, 303-36. Cf. College admis- 
sion requirements. Secondary edu- 
cation in relation to higher educa- 
tion. 

Admission to junior high school and 
to senior high school, 696-97. 

Adolescence, general treatment with 
interpretations for secondary edu- 
cation, 3-71. Cf. also 262-64. 

^Esthetic arts, general treatment, 
621-37. Cf. Music, Design and re- 
lated arts. 

Age, chronological, physiological, psy- 



chological, and pedagogical dis- 
tinguished, 5-8. 

Age-grade distribution of pupils, 5-6, 
68-69, 76-77. 

Agricultural curriculums, 688. 

Agricultural education, general treat- 
ment, 605-11; in Germany, 222-23. 
Cf. also Vocational education. 

Agricultural occupations, 608-10. 

Agriculture, 180, 413, 414; in the 
junior' high school, 686-87. Cf. 
Agricultural education. 

Aims and functions of secondary edu- 
cation, general treatment, 367-83, 
667-68. For aims of the several 
studies and other school activities 
see appropriate titles, e.g., English, 
athletics, etc. 

Algebra, general treatment of mathe- 
matical study, 481-503. Cf. also, 
75, 180, 186, 188, 189, 266, 272, 
315, 320, 413, 414, 415, 416. 

Altona plan of Reformschide, 213-15. 

American History, cf . Social sciences. 
History. 

American Historical Association, 
findings and recommendations of, 
537-39. 

American Political Science Associa- 
tion, recommendations of Commit- 
tee on the Teaching of Govern- 
ment, 561. 

Anatomical development, 17. 

Ancient history, cf. Social Sciences, 
History. 

Ancient Languages, cf . Latin, Greek, 
Foreign languages. 

Appendicitis among secondary-school 
pupils, 649. 

Appreciation versus accomplishment, 
390-91, 393, 440, 632, 634. 

Apprentices and apprenticeship, 362, 
595, 597, 600, 601. Cf. Vocational 
education. 



726 



INDEX 



Arithmetic, general treatment of 
mathematical study, 481-503. Cf. 
also, 75, 79, 80, 111, 112, 165, 178, 
179, 180, 186, 188, 189, 283, 413, 
686, 687. 

Arithmetical abilities, individual dif- 
ferences in, 79; of boys and girls 
compared. 111; of first-year high- 
school pupils, 76. Cf . Courtis. 

Armston School, 181-82, 623. 

Art, 665, 686, 687. Cf. iEsthetic 
arts. Design and related arts. 

Articulation of elementary and se- 
condary education, general treat- 
ment, 261-98. Cf. also 23-27, 49- 
53, 64-71, 131, 684-87, 693-98. 

Articulation of secondary and higher 
education, general treatment, 303- 
36. 

Association, development of capacity 
in, 37-38; individual differences in, 
76. 

Astronomy, general treatment of nat- 
ural science instruction, 506-29. 
Cf. also 178, 180, 320, 413, 414. 

Athletics, general treatment, 651- 
58. Cf. also 641, 715-17. Cf. 
also Physical education. 

Attendance of pupils, 118-55. 

Austria, 205. 

Average, as a measure, 66,. 85. 

Average deviation, as a measure, 

85. 
Avocations, cf. Leisure. 

Ayres, L. P., on retardation costs, 
126; on elimination, 128-30; on the 
mobility of labor and population, 
359-60. 

Bagley, W. C, on stages of develop- 
ment, 41 ; on the influence of ado- 
lescence, 50, 58; on the junior high 
school, 296; on the transfer of im- 
proved efficiency, 403. 

Baldwin, B. T., on growth and school 
standing, 13, 14, 16-17; on pu- 
bescence, 26-28. 

Belgium, 205. 

Berry, C. S., on physiology, 648; on 
retardation, etc., 124. 

Bigelow, M. A., on biology, 517. 



Biological heredity, individual dif- 
ferences due to, 89-95. 
Biology, general treatment of natu- 
ral science instruction, 506-29. Cf. 
also 414. Cf. also Botany, Zool- 
ogy, Physiology. 
Board schools of England, 250. 
Boas, F., on growth and school stand- 
ing, 8-13. 

Bones, growth of, 17. 

Bookkeeping, general treatment of 
clerical and commercial educa- 
tion, 583-93. Cf. also 180, 187, 188, 
189, 413, 414. 

Boston, Public Latin School, 163-65; 
English Classical (High) School, 
185-87; Gnls' High School, 187- 
88. 

Botany, general treatment of natural 
science instruction, 506-29. Cf. 
also 180, 188, 320, 413, 414. ' 

Boys, adolescence, 21-23, 27-32; 
height and weight, 8-14; vital ca- 
pacity, 15; mental traits, 36-38. 
Cf. Sex, Girls, Individual differ- 
ences. 

Brain, development of, 16-17. 

Briggs, T. H., on the junior high 
school, 293-94; on social sciences, 
540-41. 

Bright's disease among secondary- 
school pupils, 649. 

Broome, E. C, on the accrediting 
system, 336. 

Brown, E. E., on the distinction be- 
tween elementary and secondary 
education, 263-64; on the accredit- 
ing system, 333. 

Building trades, 599-601. 

Bulgaria, 205. 

Burgerschule, 220, 222. 

Burnham, W. H., on the influence of 
adolescence, 55-56. 

Burk, F., figures for growth, 9, 10, 11, 
13, 78. 

Burritt, B. B., on the professional 
distribution of college graduates, 
316. 

Business education, cf . Commercial 
education. 

Business English, 444, 590-91. 



INDEX 



727 



Calculus, 413. ^ 

California, junior college in, 310-11. 

Canada, 205. 

Cancellation, individual differences 
in, 76. 

Census, Thirteenth on occupational 
statistics, cf. Occupations. 

Central tendency, 85-86. 

Ceramic trades, 600-01. 

Certificating system of admission to 
college, 324-36. 

Charterhouse, 248. 

Chase, W. J., on the development of 
memory through history, 554. 

Chemistry, general treatment of nat- 
ural science instruction, 506-29. 
Cf. also 179, 180, 188, 272, 320, 
413, 414, 415. 

Child labor laws, effect of, 362-63. 

Chorus work in music, 623-24, 632- 
33. 

Chronological age, 2-8, £61-62, 275- 
76. 

Church and religion, effect of changes 
in, 360-61. Cf. Denominational 
schools, Sectarian Schools, Relig- 
ious education. Moral education. 

Citizenship, education for, 368-69. 
Cf. Civics, Social sciences. 

Civics, general treatment, 55&-63. 
Cf. also 413, 414, 676. 686-87. 
Cf. also Social sciences. 

Civil government, cf. Civics, Social 
sciences. 

Classics, cf. Latin, Greek, Foreign 
languages. 

Classical course, 508, 536, 664-66. 

Classical languages, cf . Latin, Greek, 
Foreign languages. 

Classification of secondary-school 
pupils, 148-55, 672-74. Cf. also 
118-45. Cf. also Individual differ- 
ences. Curriculum, etc. 

Clement, J. A., on correlation of high 
school and college standings, 331. 

Clerical education, 583-93. Cf . Vo- 
cational education. Commercial 
education. 

Clothing trades, 599-601. 

Clubs, etc., cf. Extra-curriculum ac- 
tivities. 



Coeducation, 108-15. Cf. Sex, 
Adolescence, Puberty, Individual 
differences, Curriculums, Domestic 
arts. Cf. also 87, 181, 190, 230, 245, 
253-54. 

College, general treatment of the re- 
lation of secondary to higher edu- 
cation, 303-36; secondary school- 
pupils going to college, 108, 146- 
51, 163-64; historical relation and 
present status, 303-14; admission 
requirements, 315-23; examina- 
tion and accrediting systems, 324- 
36. For special subject require- 
ments cf. subject titles, English, 
Mathematics, etc. 

College Entrance Examination 
Board, 325-28, 336. 

College, the French communal, 232- 
46. 

Colonial schools, cf. Latin grammar 
school, Academy. 

Columbus junior high school, 292. 

Colvin, S. S., on piu-e science and 
transfer values, 500. 

Commercial arithmetic in junior 
high school, 686-87. Cf. Commer- 
cial education. 

Commercial arts as related to design, 
etc., 636. 

Commercial curriculums, 688. C^. 
Commercial education. 

Commercial education, general treat- 
ment, 583-93. Cf . Vocational edu- 
cation. 

Commercial English, 444, 590-91. 

Commercial French, 453-54, 590-92. 

Commercial German, 453-54, 590- 
92. 

Commercial occupations, analysis 
of, 587-90. 

Commercial schools, cf . Special-type 
schools. 

Commercial Spanish, 453-44, 590- 
92. 

Commission on the Reorganization 
of Secondary Education, cf . reports 
of its various committees. 

Committee on Articulation of High 
School and College, recommenda- 
tions of, 322-23. 



7^ 



INDEX 



Committee on College Entrance Re- 

\^_ quirements, on units and the dis- 
tribution of requirements, 319; on 
requirements in mathematics, 
484-85. 

Committee on Economy of Time in 
Education, recommendations, 287. 

Committee (of Fifteen) on Geome- 
try Syllabus, 492-93. 

Committee on High-School Course 
in English, 422-23. 

Committee on Minimum Essentials, 
on elementary-school studies, 283. 

Committee on Modern Languages, 
456. 

Committee (of Ten) on Secondary 
School Studies, on graduates gomg 

1 to college, 147; on six-grade secon- 

j dary school, 291 ; on mathematics, 

i 484-85; on natural sciences, 508- 

' 09; on social sciences, 535-37; on 
curriculums, 664-66. 

Committee on Social Studies, on the 
aims, character, and program of 

[ social studies, 544-46; on com- 

! munity civics, 562-63; on Prob- 

'•■ lems of American Democracy, 
565-67. 

Committee on Status of Instruction 
in Hygiene in American Educa- 
tional Institutions, on provisions 
for physical education, 641. 

Committee (of Seven) on Study of 
History in Schools, on status of 
history instruction in 1898, 537- 
39; on civil government, 542. 

Committee (of Five) on Study of 
History in Secondary Schools, rec- 
ommendations, 539. 

Community Civics, 542-43, 560-63, 
686, 687. Cf. Civics, Social sci- 
ences. 

Community life, effect of changes on 
secondary education, 356-60. 

Compayre, G., American influence 
on French education, 237. 

Composite mathematics, 492, 686, 
687. 

Composite secondary schools, cf. 
Comprehensive secondary schools. 
Composition, 425-38. Cf. English. 



Comprehensive secondary schools 
versus special-type schools, 698- 
704. 

Compulsory attendance, 131-32, 
585, 596, 607, 612. Cf. Retarda- 
tion, Elimination. 

Concentration, 680-81. 

Conceptual values, mathematics, 
492-93; natural sciences, 521-22; 
social sciences, 553-54. 

Concomitant development, theory 
of, 44-53. 

Connecticut, Latin grammar schools 
in, 168-69. 

Constant elements in curriculum 
organization, 674-76, 686, 687. 
689-90. 

Contingent values, 391-92. 

Continuation education and con- 
tinuation schools, 697-98, 707; m 
France, 239; in Germany, 222-23. 
Cf. Vocational education. 

Continuity in education, 680-81. 

Cooperative part-time education, cf. 
Part-time education. 

Correlation of high-school and col- 
lege standing, 328-33. 

Cosmopolitan high school, cf. com- 
prehensive secondary school. 

Cost, of junior high school, 297; of 
retardation, 126-27; of vocational 
education, 582-84. 

Counts, G. S., on the distribution of 
high-school graduates, 151. 

Courtis, S. A., and the Courtis Stan- 
dard Tests, on the reasoning abil- 
ity of children, 47; individual dif- 
ferences in arithmetical abilities, 
75, 76, 79, 84; on sex differences, 
110-12. 

Courses of study, cf. Curriculums. 

Crampton, C. W., on The influence of 
growth and puberty, 21-23, 28, 67- 
68; on sex hygiene and sex peda- 
gogy, 650-51. 

Criteria of subject values, general 
treatment, 387-418. 

Culture and cultural education, cf. 
Leisure. Cf. also footnote, p. 171. 

Curriculums, general treatment, 

! 662-90; historical and compara- 



INDEX 



729 



tive considerations, 662-67; prin- 
ciples determining curriculum or- 
ganization and differentiation, 
667-83; junior and senior high- 
school curriculum organization, 
683-90; curriculmns of higher 
schools in Prussia, 209-18; in 
France, 235-41: in England, 249, 
252-53; curriculimi of Latin gram- 
mar schools, 164-67; curriculums 
of the academies, 178-82. 

Dancing, as an aesthetic art, 621 ; in 
physical education, 654-56. Cf. 
^Esthetic arts. Physical education. 

Davis, B. M., on agricultural educa- 
tion, 606. 

Davis, C. O., on adolescence and the 
beginning of secondary education, 
50, 58. 

Dearborn, W. F., on the distribution 
of high-school grades, 81-82; on 
the correlation of high-school and 
college grades, 330-31. 

Death rate, 17-19, 642, 649. 

Declamation, 179, 180, 186, 187, 413. 

Deferred values, 682-83, 713. 

De Garmo, C, on values of the nat- 
ural sciences, 522. 

Democracy, 342-44, 244-46, 368, 
719-21. 

Denmark, 205, 273. 

Denominational schools, 361. 

Departmental teaching, 279, 293-94. 

Design and related arts, general 
treatment, 633-37. Cf. Esthetic 
arts. Industrial arts. Domestic arts, 
Commercial arts. 

Development, physical, 3-32; psy- 
chological, 34-71. 

Dewey, J., on mental development, 
43-45; on social changes, 353-54; 
on language study, 425-28, 430, 
432, 446; on aesthetic arts, 625. 

Dexter, E. G., on the academy 
movement, 175; on the high-school 
movement, 194-95. 

Diagnosis, cf. Educational diagnosis. 
Diagnostic education. Diagnostic 
function. Educational guidance, 
Individual differences. Elimina- 



tion, Expectancy of stay. Classifi- 
cation of pupils. 

Diagnostic education, 294, 382-83, 
695, 699, 706, 717-19. Cf. Edu- 
cational diagnosis. Diagnostic 
fimction. Educational guidance. 
Individual differences. Elimina- 
tion, Expectancy of stay. Classifi- 
cation of pupils. 

Diagnostic function of secondary 
education, 382-83, 669. Cf. Diag- 
nostic education. Educational di- 
agnosis. Educational guidance. In- 
dividual differences. Elimination, 
Expectancy of stay, Classification 
of pupils. 

Differences, cf . Individual differences. 

Differentiating function, 378-79, 
668-69. Cf . Individual differences. 

Differentiation, social, 347-49; edu- 
cational, 280, 294-95, 677, 662- 
90. 

Differentiated curriculums, 662-90. 

Direct values, general treatment, 
388-94 ; of various studies, cf . sub- 
ject titles. 

Disciplinary values, cf. Transfer of 
improved efficiency. 

Discipline, 53, 71, 719-21. 

Dissociation as the basis of transfer, 
397 ff. 

Distribution of college graduates, 
316. 

Distribution of high-school gradu- 
ates, 150-53. 

Distribution of individual differ- 
ences, 75-86. Cf. Individual dif- 
ferences. 

Distribution of pupils in school, 118- 
55. Cf. Individual differences. Re- 
tardation, Elimination. 

District school system, 168-70, 272. 

Domestic arts, domestic science, 
domestic economy, etc., cf . Domes- 
tic education. 

Domestic curriculums, 688-89. 

Domestic (arts) education, general 
treatment, 611-15. Cf. Voca- 
tional education. Practical arts 
education. As related to aesthetic 
arts, 636-37. 



730 



INDEX 



Douglass, A. A., on the junior high 

school, 293. 
Drawing, cf . Design and related arts, 

.Esthetic arts. Cf. also 320, 321, 

413, 414. 
Dummer Academy, 172. 
Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D., on 

Vocational education, 705-06. 
Dynes, J. J., on retardation and 

elimination, 140. 

Early promise and elimination, 137- 
38. 

'Ecole practigue, 232, 

Ecole primaire, 232 ff.; Ecole pri- 
maire swperieure, 239. 

Economics, 563-67, 320, 413. Cf. 
Social sciences. 

Economic conditions and elimina- 
tion, 135. 

Economic factors affecting individ- 
ual differences, 100-06. 

Economic-vocational aim of secon- 
dary education, 368-71. 

Economic- vocational values, cf . sub- 
ject titles. 

Economy in Education, 126-27, 286- 
87. 

Economy of Time in Education, rec- 
ommendations of committee, 287. 

Educational diagnosis, 100-08, 131- 
55, 294, 330-33, 382-83, 669, 671, 
672-74, 695, 717-19. 

Educational guidance, 717-19. Cf. 
Educational diagnosis, Expec- 
tancy of stay. Classification of 
pupils, Diagnostic education. Diag- 
nostic function. Individual differ- 
ences. Retardation, Elimination, 
etc. 

Electrical trades, 600-01. 

Election and elective studies, 670- 
71, 676-82. 

Elementarschule, 209. 

Elementary education, general treat- 
ment in relation to secondary edu- 
cation, junior high school, etc., 
261-98; distinctions between ele- 
mentary and secondary education, 
261-69; historical relation, 269- 
72; foreign systems, 272-74, 208- 



09, 221-22, 226-27, 232-33, 245, 
255; defects in present relation, 
274-83; reforms planned, 284-98. 
Cf. also 49, 64. 

Elementary science, cf. General sci- 
ence. 

Elimination, general treatment, 128- 
45, 153-55, 281-82, 287-88, 294, 
694-95. 

Eliot, C. W., on the values of nat- 
mal science study, 517. 

Endowed schools of England, 247- 
50. 

Engineering trades, 600-01. 

England, secondary education in, 
general treatment, 246-58; Latin 
grammar school, 162; academy 
movement, 170; organization of 
school system, 273. 

English, general treatment of its 
place in the program of studies, 
420-45. Cf. also 321-23, 413-16, 
665, 675-76, 686-87; distribu- 
tion of grades in English, 81. 

English Classical (High) school of 
Boston, 185-87. 

English course, 508, 536, 664-66. 

Enrollment in secondary schools. 
United States, 118-23; in Ger- 
many, 220-22, 228; in France, 242; 
in England, 252, 256; in certain 
other countries, 205. 

Environmental factors and individ- 
ual differences, 95-105. 

Errors in interpreting individual dif- 
ferences, 87-88. 

Ethics, taught in France, 544; in 
America, 413. 

Eton College, 248. 

Etymology, 413, 464-65. 

Europe, secondary education in, 
203-58; industrial education in, 
593-94. Cf. Foreign countries, 
Germany, France, England, etc. 

Evening schools, 697-98. 

Evidences of Christianity, 180, 187, 
188. 

Examinations for college entrance, 
324-36. 

Expectancy of stay in the secondary 
school, 141-45. Cf. also Educa- 



INDEX 



731 



tional diagnosis, Educational gui- 

. dance. Classification of pupils, 
Retardation, Elimination, Diag- 
nostic education, etc. 

Expense, cf. Cost. 

Experimental investigation of trans- 
fer, 407-09. 

Extra-curriculum activities, 715-17. 

Factory system, effects of, 361, 595. 

Faculty psychology, 394, 459-60, 
496, 514, 522, 554^-55, 587. 

Fallacies involved in determining 
direct values, 389-94; Spencer's 
fallacies, 512-17. 

Fathers, occupations of, 102-03. 

Fine arts, cf. Esthetic arts. 

Flexibility of organization and ad- 
ministration, 294, 677-80. 

Food industries, 599-601. 

Foreign-born children and children 
of foreign-born parentage, 95-100. 
Cf. Biological heredity. Social 
heredity. 

Foreign countries, secondary edu- 
cation in, 203-58, 272-74, 666- 
67. 

Foreign languages, general treat- 
ment of instruction in, 447-78. Cf . 
also 51, 70, 321-23, 413-15, 438, 
665, 686, 687. Cf. Latin, Greek, 
German, French, Spanish. 

Formal discipline, cf . Transfer of im- 
proved efficiency. 

Fortbildungschule, 221-23. Cf. Ger- 
many, education in. 

Foster, W. L., on pubescence as a 
basis for classification, 24-25, 67. 

France, education in, general treat- 
ment, 231-46. Cf. also 205, 206, 
272-74, 422, 450-51, 512, 543-44. 

Frankfort plan of Reformschule, 213- 
15. 

Franklin's Academy, 171-72, 178, 
481. 

Frauenschule, 216-18. 

French, general treatment of foreign 
language instruction, 447-77. Cf. 
also 178, 179, 180, 188, 190. 209- 
12, 214-15, 217-18, 236, 238, 241, 
249, 520, 590. 



Fresno, California, Junior College, 

311. 
Functions of secondary education, 

375-83, 668-69. 

General high school, cf . Comprehen- 
sive secondary school. 

General science, 320, 413, 525-29, 
676, 686-87. Cf . Natural sciences. 

Generalization, 379 ff. Cf. Dissocia- 
tion, Transfer of improved effi- 
ciency. 

Geography, 165, 178, 179, 180, 186, 
187, 188, 276, 283, 413, 676, 686- 
87. 

Geology, general treatment of nat- 
ural science instruction, 506-29. 
Cf. also 180, 320, 413. 

Geometry, general treatment of 
mathematical studies, 481-503. Cf . 
also 165, 178, 179, 180, 187, 188, 
320, 402, 403, 413, 414, 415, 686, 
687. 

German, general treatment of for- 
eign language instruction, 447-77. 
Cf. also 180, 209-12, 214-15, 217- 
18, 238, 249, 320, 413, 414, 415, 
416, 417, 520, 590. 

Germany, education in, general 
treatment, 206-31. Cf. also 171, 
205, 272-74, 421-22, 450, 484, 511, 
543-44. 

Gilbert, J. A., on growth and school 
standing, 14, 16; on development 
of mental traits, 36. 

Ginnasio, 273. 

Girls, height and weight, 8-14; vital 
capacity, 15; pubescence and 
adolescence, 21 ff . ; development of 
mental traits, 36-38; compared 
with boys, 108-15; secondary edu- 
cation of in academy, 181-82; sec- 
ondary education of in Germany, 
216-19; secondary education of in 
France, 240-41; secondary educa- 
tion of in England, 253-54. Cf. 
Sex, Individual differences. Co- 
education. 

Government, cf. Social sciences. 
Civics. 

Government of pupils, 719-21. 



732 



INDEX 



Grades, distribution of, 79, 81. 

Gradual development, theory of, 
54 ff. 

Gradual transition, principle of, 293- 
94. 

Graduates, distribution of college, 
316. 

Graduates, distribution of high- 
school, 146-53. 

Grammar, 413, 434. Cf. English. 

Grammar school, cf . Latin granunar 
school. 

Grant-list and efficient schools of 
England and Wales, 250-54. 

Greece, aesthetic arts in ancient 
Greece, 621-22; physical educa- 
tion in ancient Greece, 640; edu- 
cation in modern Greece, 205, 273. 

Greek, general treatment of foreign 
language, instruction, 447-77. Cf. 
also 164-65, 178, 209, 212, 214, 
236, 238, 249, 304, 314, 320, 413, 
414. 

Grip of hand, 76. 

Growth, physical traits, 3-32; men- 
tal traits, 34-71. 

Guidance, cf. Educational guidance. 
Educational diagnosis. Expectancy 
of stay. Classification of pupils, 
Diagnostic education. Diagnostic 
function. Individual differences. 
Retardation, Elimination. 

Guizot Law, 237. \ 

Gymnasium, 641. Cf. Physical edu- 
cation. 

Gymnasium, 209 ff. Cf. Germany, 
education in. 

Gymnastics, 652-58. Cf. Physical 
Education. 

Hadley, A. T., on distinction be- 
tween elementary, secondary, and 
higher education, 265. 

Hall, G. S., on adolescence, 56-58. 

Handwork, cf . Manual arts, Manual 
training. Practical arts education, 
etc. 

Harrow, 248. 

Hartwell, E. M., on death rate, 18. 

Head, circumference of, 15-17. 

Health, in relation to physical 



growth, 17-19. Cf. Physical edu- 
cation. Hygiene. 

Heart disease, 649. 

Hecker's Realschule, 171. 

Height, growth in, 8-14; individual 
differences in, 76, 78. 

Henderson, E. N., on Rosenkrantz's 
theory of mental stages, 41-43. 

Heredity, cf. Biological heredity. 
Social heredity. Individual dif- 
ferences. 

Heterogeneity, of population, 358- 
59; of school groups, cf. Individual 
differences. 

High school, historical development, 
184-200; relation to the elemen- 
tary school, 261-98; relation to 
higher institutions, 303-36. Cf. 
Secondary education. Junior high 
school. Senior high school. Com- 
prehensive secondary school, Spe- 
cial-type schools. Program of 
Studies, Curriculums, Organiza- 
tion, etc. 

High-school course, pupils' estimate 
of value, 107-08. 

High-school graduates, distribution 
of, 146-53. 

High-school pupils, physical traits, 
3-32; mental traits, 34-71 ; individ- 
ual differences, 74-115; attitudes 
toward school work, interests, etc., 
103-08; acceleration and retarda- 
tion, 123-28; elimination, 128-45; 
expectancy of stay in school, 142- 
45; distribution and classification, 
146-55, 671-74; going to college or 
other higher institution, 14&-53, 
312-14. 

Higher education in relation to sec- 
ondary education, 303-36. 

Hinsdale, B. A., on the values of the 
study of history, 554-55. 

Historical development of secondary 
education, 161-200. 

History, general treatment of social 
science instruction, 534-69, espe- 
cially 545-59. Cf. also 171, 179- 
80, 186-87, 188-89, 209-12, 214- 
15, 217-18, 236, 238, 241, 249, 253, 
411, 413-15, 583-604, 676, 686-87. 



INDEX 



733 



History of English literature as a 
study, 413. 

Hohere Schule, 20&-31. Cf. Ger- 
many, education in. 

Hokeres Lehrerinnenseminar, 216-19. 
Cf. Germany, education in. 

Holland, E. O.^ on the relation be- 
tween secondary schools and nor- 
mal schools, 309. 

Holley, C. E., on home conditions 
and persistence in school, 100-01, 
135-37. 

Home and family life, the effect of 
changes in secondary education, 
350-56, 578, 585, 595, 607, 613, 
644. 

Home conditions and elimination, 
134-37. 

Home economics, cf. Domestic edu- 
cation. 

Home making, etc., cf. Domestic 
education. 

Home study, cf. Supervised study. 

Hopkins, Edward, and the Latin 
grammar schools, 163. 

Household arts education, cf. Do- 
mestic education. 

Household economics, cf. Domestic 
education. 

Household science, cf . Domestic edu- 
cation. 

Huxley, T., on the values of natural 
science instruction, 530. 

Hygiene, 645-51. Cf. also, 413, 
508, 519, 641, 686, 687. Cf. Natu- 
ral sciences. Physical education. 
Sex hygiene. 

Illness, at adolescence, 19; prevent- 
able through education, 642. 

Immigration, bearing of, on second- 
ary education, 95-100. 

Income of the family as related to 
persistence in school, 101-02. 

Indirect values, 394-412. Cf. also 
subject titles. 

Individual differences, general treat- 
ment of character, distribution, 

, and causes, 74-115; necessity for 

' earlier recognition, 285-86, 290, 
665-66, 695; importance in the 



junior high school, 294, 685-87; as 
a social factor, 347-49; in relation 
to the differentiating function of 
secondary education, 378-79, 668- 
69, 671-75, 676-82; in relation to 
supervised study, 714. 

Individualistic-avocational aim of 
secondary education, general treat- 
ment, 367, 371-74, 667-68; related 
to literature, 640-42; related to 
history, 552; related to music, 630- 
31. 

Industrial (arts) education, general 
treatment, 593-605; curriculums, 
688; as related to aesthetic arts, 
626, 634-36; in Germany, 222-23. 
Cf. Vocational education. 

Industrial occupations, analysis of, 
597-601. 

Inspection, cf. Accrediting system. 

Instincts, 48. 

Instruction, organization of, 712-15. 
Cf . Supervised study, Curriculums, 
Program of studies, etc. 

Integrating function of secondary 
education, 296-97, 377-78, 439, 
551, 668, 676. Cf. Integration, 
Social Heredity, etc. 

Integration, social, 95-100, 296-97, 
347-49, 377-78, 439, 551, 668, 676. 

Intermediate school, cf. Junior high 
school. 

Interests of pupils, 103-08, 113-15, 
701-02. Cf . Individual differences. 
Educational guidance, Education- 
al_ diagnosis, Diagnostic function. 
Diagnostic education, Curricu- 
lums, Vocational education, etc. 

Italian, 413. Cf. Foreign languages. 

Italy, 205, 273. 

James, W., on memory, 44; on in- 
stincts, 48. 

Japan, 205, 273. 

Joliet (Illinois) Junior College, 310. 

Jones, A. L., on examinations as a 
test of fitness for college admission, 
328-29. 

Judd, C. H., on the problem of trans- 
fer, 395-97, 400, 408, 419. 

Junior college, 310-12. 



734 



INDEX 



Junior high school, general treatment, 
284-98; curriculum organization, 
684-87; place in the school system, 
693-98; comprehensive versus 
special-type organization, 684-85, 
698-99; organization of instruc- 
tion and supervised study, 712-15; 
diagnosis and guidance, 718-19. Cf. 
Elementary education in relation 
to secondary education. 

Kalamazoo High School case, 200. 

Kandel, I., on the Einheitschule in 
Germany, 224. 

Kansas, teacher-training courses in 
high schools, 308. 

Karpinski, L. C, on the values of 
mathematical study, 490, 493. 

Keatings, M. W., on methods of his- 
tory instruction, 55Q-58. 

Keer, J., on the academy, in Scot- 
land, 171. 

Kerschensteiner, G., on German and 
American education, 227, 229. 

King, I., on gradual development, 
60-62; on the interests and habits 
of high-school pupils, 102-04. 

Kingsley, C. D., on college entrance 
requirements, 317-23; on the 

'- Study of Nations, 569. 

Kirkpatrick, E. A., on mental traits, 
47. 

Laboratory work, 507-08. 

Land grants to academies, 175-78. 

Language study, cf. English, For- 
eign languages, Latin, Greek, Ger- 
man, French, Spanish. 

Latin, general treatment of foreign 
language study, 447-77. Cf. also 
164-65, 166, 167, 172, 178-80, 188, 
189, 209-10, 212, 214-15, 217, 
236-38, 241, 249, 253, 304, 306, 
314, 320, 413-15, 416, 417. 

Latin grammar school, general treat- 
ment, 160-70. Cf. also, 269-70, 
304-05, 420-21, 481, 506, 534, 662. 

Latin-scientific course, 508, 536, 664, 
665, 666. 

Leicester Academy, 181. 

Leisure, preparation for the worthy 



use of, 371-74. Cf. Individualis- 
tic-a vocational aim. 

Liberal and vocational education, 
705-06. 

Liceo, 273. 

Lincoln, E. A., on the correlation of 
standing in high school, college- 
entrance examinations, and in 
early college, 331-32. 

Linguistic education, cf. English, 
Language study. Foreign lan- 
guages. 

Literature, general treatment, 420- 
25, 438-45, 627-28. Cf. English, 
^Esthetic arts. Cf. also, 51, 413, 
414, 415, 424-25, 438-42. 

Lodge, H. C, on the values of classi- 
cal studies, 459-60. 

Logic, 178, 179, 180, 186, 188, 189, 
413. 

Los Angeles Junior High School, 292. 

Lungs, growth of, 15-16. 

LycSe, 231 ff. 

Lyzeum, 216-18. 

MacDonald, A., on growth and 
school progress, 13. 

Machinist trades, 599-601. 

Mddchenschule, 208, 216-19. Cf. 
Germany, education in. 

Maine, state aid in, 199. 

Major studies, for college admission, 
321-23; for concentration, 680-81. 

Mann, Horace, on history in early 
schools, 535. 

Manual arts in the junior high school, 
686, 687. 

Manual training, 413, 414, 573, 593- 
94. Cf. Practical arts education. 
Vocational education. Industrial 
education. 

Maryland, academies in, 174. 

Massachusetts, Latin grammar 
schools, 163-69; academies, 172- 
74, 176-77; public high schools, 
185-93; legal provisions for sec- 
ondary education, 165-66, 188- 
92. 

Massachusetts Commission on In- 
dustrial and Technical Education, 
618. 



INDEX 



735 



Mathematics, general treatment, 
481-503. Cf. also, 75-76, 79, 80, 
81-82, 111, 165, 172, 178-80, 186, 
187, 188, 189, 209-12, 214, 215, 
217, 218, 235, 236, 238, 249, 253, 
283, 306, 319, 320, 321, 322, 323, 
413, 414, 415, 416, 664, 665, 686, 
687. Cf. Arithmetic, Algebra, 
Geometry, Trigonometry, Calcu- 
lus. 

Maturity, cf. Adolescence, Puberty. 

Mayo, M. J., on the mental capac- 
ity of the negro pupil, 90-95. 

Mechanical drawing, cf . Design and 
related arts. Practical arts educa- 
tion. Vocational education. 

Mechanics, 413. 

Median, 85. 

Median deviation, 85. 

Medical examination, 641. Cf. Phys- 
ical education. 

Memories, development with age, 
38-39; individual differences, 76. 

Men teachers, 280. 

Meningitis, 649. 

Mensuration, 179, 180, 186, 413. 

Mental development, general treat- 
ment, 34-71, 262-64. 

Mental disciphne, cf. Transfer of 
improved efficiency. 

Mental traits, general treatment, 34- 
71. 

Merchandising, cf . Commercial edu- 
cation. 

Merchant Taylors', 248. 

Metal-working trades, 599-601. 

Meteorology, 180, 413. Cf. Natural 
sciences. 

Methods of teaching, as affected by 
theories of development, 52-53, 
70-71; supervised study, 713-15; 
deferred and immediate values, 
713; in the junior high school, 278- 
81, 294-95. Cf . subject titles. 

Military training, 640, 641, 652, 657- 
58. 

Milliken, R. A., on the propaedeutic 
values of mathematics, 490. 

Mills, J. E., on the values of chem- 
istry, 515. 

Mineralogy, 180, 413. 



Minneapolis Survey, 604. 

Minnesota, state aid in, 200. 

Minor studies, 322-23. 

Mittelschule, 221-22. 

Mobility of labor and population, ef-< 
feet on education, 359-60, 

Mode, 85. 

Modern languages, general treat- 
ment of foreign language instruc- 
tion, 447-77. Cf. also German, 
French, Spanish, Italian. 

Modern Language Association, on 
the scope of modern language in- 
struction, 456. 

Modern language course, 508, 536, 
664-66. 

Monroe, P., on the bearing of ado- 
lescence on secondary education, 
65, 69-70; on German schools, 
220, 222; on French schools, 237. 

Moral-social education, as affected 
by changes in the home, in com- 
munity life, and in the vocation, 
351-53, 363-64; as effected by 
changes in the Church, 360-61. 

Moravian academies, 172. 

Mortality statistics, 17-18, 642-44, 
649. 

Mother tongue, cf. English. 

Motor skill, 51. 

Music, general treatment, 628-33. 
Cf. Esthetic arts. Cf. also 180, 
209, 210, 217, 236, 241, 249, 253, 
283, 320, 413, 414, 415, 686, 687, 
689. 

Nationality, individual differences 
due to, 95-100; relation to elimina- 
tion, 136. 

Natural history, 180, 413. 

Natural Philosophy, cf. Physics. 

Natural sciences, general treatment, 
506-29. Cf. Physics, Chemistry, 
Biology, General science, Physi- 
ology, Astronomy, Geology, Mete- 
orology, Physical geography. Bot- 
any, Zoology. Cf . also 321-23, 413, 
414, 515, 645-51, 665, 686, 687. 

Natural theology, 187, 188, 413. 

Nazareth Hall, 172. 

Navigation, 179, 180, 186, 413. 



736 



INDEX 



Negroes, mental capacity of, 90-95. 

Nervous diseases, 644. 

Nervous system, growth of, 26. 

Netherlands, 205. 

New England, Latin grammar school 
in, 169; academies in, 175; workers 
in various occupations, 580. 

New England College Entrance Cer- 
tificating Board, 334-35, 338. 

New Hampshire, Latin grammar 
schools in, 168, 169. 

New York State, academies in, 174, 
177, 180, 193; high-school move- 
ment, 193. 

New York State Board of Kegents, 
325. 

Normal age, 123-24. 

Normal distribution, 77-84. 

Normal schools, 308-10. 

Norsworthy, N., on memory span, 
38. 

North Carolina, academies in, 174. 

North Central Association of Col- 
leges and Secondary schools, 335. 

North Central States, teacher train- 
ing in high schools, 308. 

Norway, 205. 

Oberlehrer, 223-24. 

Oberlyzeum, 216-19. 

Oberrealschule, 310 ff. Cf. Germany, 
education in. 

Occupational choices of high-school 
pupils, 103-06. 

Occupations, analysis of, general 

^ divisions, 578-80; clerical, 587- 
88; commercial, 588-90; indus- 
trial, 597-602, 604; agricultural, 
608-10; of women, 613-14. Cf. 
Practical arts education. Voca- 
tional education. Industrial Edu- 
cation, Clerical education. Com- 
mercial education. Agricultural 
education, Domestic education. 

Occupation of pupils' fathers, 101- 
03, 136. 

Occupations of high-school gradu- 
ates, 152-53. 

Ohio, high-school movement in, 163- 
64. 

Organic diseases, 644. 



Organization, of curriculums, 662- 
690; of the school system, 693-98; 
of the secondary school, 698-704; 
of vocational secondary education, 
704-12; of instruction, 712-15; 
of extra-curriculum education, 
715-17; of educational guidance, 
717-19; social organization of the 
school, 719-21. 

Organs and parts of the body, growth 
of, 14-17. 

Ossification, 17. 

Over-age pupils, cf. Retardation, 
Promotion. 

Painting, cf. ^Esthetic arts. Design 
and related arts. 

Part-time education, 596, 602, 708- 
11. Cf. Vocational education. 

Paterson, N.J., age-grade distribu- 
tion, 5; distribution of pupils ac- 
cording to stages of puberty, 27-32. 

Pearse, A. S., on the values of bio- 
logical study, 516-17. 

Pearson, K., on scientific method, 
524-25. 

Pedagogical age, 6-7, 276-77. 

Pennsylvania, academies in, 309. 

Pennsylvania State Normal Schools, 
309. 

Perkins, A. S., report of experiment 
on the results of Latin study, 474- 
75. . 

Pettee Committee, on the division of 
the system of education, 292. 

Phillips Academies at Andover and 
Exeter, 172, 178-79. 

Physical development, general treat- 
ment, 3-32. Cf . also 262-64, 669- 
71. Cf. Adolescence, Puberty, 
Physical education. 

Physical education, general treat- 
ment, 640-58. 

Physical geography, 413, 414, 415. 
Cf. Natural sciences. 

Physical training, general treatment, 
651-58. Cf . Physical education. 

Physical traits, 3-32. 

Physics, general treatment of natural 
science instruction, 506-29. Cf. 
also, 178, 179, 180, 186, 188, 189, 



INDEX 



737 



272, 320, 413, 414, 415. Cf. Natu- 

TSLi SCiGIlCGS« 

Physiological age, 7, 19-30, 284-85. 
Cf. Adolescence, Puberty, Physi- 
cal development. 

Physiology, general treatment of 
physical education, 645-51; gen- 
eral treatment of natural science 
instruction, 506-29. Cf. also 180, 
320, 413, 414, 415, 686, 687. 

Plato, on Greek education, 621-22. 

Play, 654-58. 

Plymouth Colony, Latin grammar 
school, 168. 

Political economy, cf. Economics, 
Social sciences. 

Postpubescence, cf. Puberty, Ado- 
lescence. 

Porter, W. T., on growth and school 
progress, 12-14. 

Portugal, 205. 

Practical arts education, general 
treatment, 572-615. Cf. Voca- 
tional education. Industrial edu- 
cation. Commercial education. 
Agricultural education. Domestic 
education. 

Preferential studies, 681-82. 

Preparation for college, cf. College. 

Preparatory curriculums, 689. 

Preparatory schools, cf. Academy, 
Private schools. Propaedeutic func- 
tion, College. 

Prepubescence, cf. Puberty, Adoles- 
cence. 

Preventive medicine, 643. 

Prevocational education, 288-89, 
706-07. Cf . Vocational education. 

Primary education, cf. Elementary 
education, Ecole primaire. 

Printing trades, 600-01. 

Private schools, 119-20, 196-97. Cf. 
Academy. 

Probejahr, 223. 

Problems of American Democracy, 
as a study, 546, 565-67. 

Problem-solving methods, 402-03. 

Professeur, 243-44. 

Professions entered by college and 
university graduates, 315-16. 

Program of studies (not curriculums). 



criteria of subject values, general 
treatment, 386-412; analysis of 
program, 412-18. Cf. Subject 
titles, Curriculums. 

Progymnasium, 209 ff . Cf . Germany, 
education in. 

Promotion, 294, 696-97. 

Propaedeutic function of secondary 
education, 379-80, 669. Cf. Col- 
lege. 

Prussia, education in, 206-31. 

Pryor, on anatomical age, 17. 

Psychological age, 7, 34-71, 262-64, 
284-85, 696-97. 

Pubescence, cf. Puberty, Adoles- 
cence. 

Puberty, general treatment, 19-32, 
34-71, 262-64. 

Public schools of England, 247 flp. 

Pupils, physical traits, 3-32; mental 
traits, 34-71; individual differ- 
ences, 74-115; distribution and 
classification, 118-55, 671-74. 

Pyle, W. H., on association and sub- 
stitution tests, 37. 

Questionnaire methods, 63-64. 

Racial heredity, 89-95. Cf. Biologi- 
cal heredity. Social heredity. In- 
dividual differences. 

Rapeer, L. W., on physical educa- 
tion, 642, 648, 649, 659. 

Reaction time, 36. 

Realgymnasium, 210 ff . Cf . Germany, 
education in. 

Real jyro gymnasium, 210 ff. Cf. Ger- 
many, education in. 

Realschule, 210 ff . Cf . Germany, edu- 
cation in. 

Reasoning, theories involving the de- 
velopment of capacity for, 39-71; 
individual differences in arith- 
metical reasoning among high- 
school pupils, 76. Cf . also Transfer 
of improved efficiency. 

Recitation, reforms in supervised 
study, 713-14. 

Reformschide, Reformgymnasium, 
213-15. Cf. Germany, education 
in. 



7S8 



INDEX 



Religion, effects of changes in the 
Church, 360-61 ; religion as a study 
in German higher schools, 209, 
210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 217, 218. 
Cf. Denominational schools. Sec- 
tarian schools. 

Reorganization of elementary and 
secondary education, 274-98, 693- 
721. Cf. Junior high school. Social 
principles. For reorganization of 
means of instruction, cf. subject 
titles. 

Repeaters, cf. Retardation. 

Required studies, 675-76, 681-82. 
Cf. Constants, Individual differ- 
ences. Election and elective stud- 
ies. Preferential studies. Vari- 
ables, Curriculums, and subject 
titles. 

Retardation, general treatment, 123- 
27. Cf. also, 281-82, 287-88, 294, 
69&-97. Cf. Acceleration, Elimi- 
nation, Promotion, Physical de- 
velopment. Mental development. 

Rhetoric, 178, 179, 180, 186, 188, 
189, 413. 414, 415, 416. Cf. Eng- 
hsh. 

Rhode Island, Latin grammar 
schools in, 168. 

Rigid curriculums, 677-80. 

Robinson, J. H., on historical in- 
struction, 568. 

Robison, C. H., on the transfer val- 
ues of agricultural study, 608. 

Roman Catholic Church, schools 
maintained by, 184. 

Rosenkrantz, J. K. F., on stages of 
mental development, 41-42. 

Rotch, on anatomical age, 17. 

Ruediger, W. C, on transfer, 404. 

Rugby, 248. , , , ,, 

Rugg, H. O., transfer values of math- 
ematical study, 497-98. 

Rural communities, secondary educa- 
tion in, 582, 607, 703; statistics of 
secondary schools and attendance, 
120-21; distribution of population 
in rural and urban communities, 
357. Cf. Agricultural education, 
Urbanization, Smith-Hughes Law. 

Russia, 205. 



St. Paul's (London), 248. 

Salaries of teachers, in Germany, 
223; in France, 244. 

Salesmanship, cf. Commercial edu- 
cation. 

Salmon, L., on the values of histori- 
cal study, 554. 

Saltatory development, 54 ff. Cf. 
Adolescence, Puberty, Physical de- 
velopment. Mental development. 
Gradual development. 

Santa Barbara (Cahfornia) Junior 
College, 311. 

Schools, comprehensive versus spe- 
cial-type, 698-704. 

Schultze, A., on the values of mathe- 
matical study, 487-88, 490, 494. 

Science, cf. Natural sciences. Social 
sciences. 

Scientific method, 524-25. 

Scotland, academies in, 170-71; or- 
ganization of education, 273. 

Secondary education, historical de- 
velopment in America, 161-200; 
secondary education in foreign 
countries, 203-58; in relation to 
elementary education, 261-98; in 
relation to higher education, 303- 
36; social principles determining 
secondary education, 340-64; aims 
and functions, 367-83; program 
of studies, 387-658; curriculmn 
organization, 662-90; phases of 
external organization, 693-711; 
phases of internal organization, 
712-21. 

Secondary-school pupils, physical 
traits, 3-32; mental traits, 34-71; 
individual differences, 74-115; 
numbers, classification, and dis- 
tribution, 118-55, 671-74. 

Sectarian schools, 184, 361. 

Seeley, J. R., on history instruction, 
557. 

Segregation, cf. Coeducation. 

Selection, 89. 

Selective function of secondary edu- 
cation, 380-82, 669. 

Self-government, 719-21.^ 

Senior high school, curriculum or- 
ganization, 687-90; general econ- 



INDEX 



739 



omy, 694-98. Cf. Junior high 
school, Curriculums, Comprehen- 
sive secondary school. 

Sense discrimination, 36. 

Serial or periodic development, the- 
ory of, 39 ff. 

Sewing, cf. Domestic education. 

Sex, individual differences due to, 
108-15. Cf. Adolescence, Coedu- 
cation, Physical traits. Mental 
traits, Individual differences. Girls, 
Puberty. 

Sex hygiene and sex pedagogy, 650- 
51. Cf. Adolescence, Puberty, 
Coeducation. 

Sex instincts, development of, 59, 61. 
Cf. Adolescence, Puberty, Indi- 
vidual differences. Coeducation. 

Shallies, G. W., on the distribution 
of high-school graduates, 152. 

Shopwork, cf. Industrial education. 
Vocational education, Practical 
arts education. 

Short-unit courses, 686, 687. Cf. 
Diagnostic education. Diagnostic 
function. 

Shrewsbury, 248. 

Six-grade secondary school, 291-98, 
684-90, 693-98. Cf. Junior high 
school. Senior high school, Curric- 
ulums, Organization. 

Size of family and elimination, 135-36. 

Size of secondary school, 120-21, 
582, 677, 683, 699-700. 

Skewed distribution, 83-84. 

Skull, growth of, 16. 

Sleight, W. G., on transfer values, 
400, 406-07. 

Small, W. H., on the Latin grammar 
school, 169. 

Smedley, F. W., on physical traits, 
13, 15-16. 

Smith, A. T., on foreign school sys- 
tems, 274. 

Smith, D. E,, on the values of mathe- 
matical study, 488, 494. 

Smith, F. O., on the correlation of 
pupils' standing in high school and 
college, 331-32. 

Smith, H. B., on industrial educa- 
tion, 581-82. 



Smith-Hughes Law for Vocational 
Education, 574-75, 594, 606. 

Snedden, D., on vocational secon- 
dary education, 705-06. 

Social-civic aim of secondary edu- 
cation, general treatment, 367-69, 
667-68; in relation to literature, 
438-39, 441-42; in relation to for- 
eign language study, 455-57; in 
relation to social science study, 
544-69 ; as related to physical train- 
ing and athletics, 651-58; as re- 
lated to military training, 658; as 
related to curriculum organization, 
667-68, 675-76; as related to ex- 
tra-curriculum education, 715-17; 
as related to the social organiza- 
tion of the school', 719-21. 

Social evolution and educational 
adjustment, 344-64. 

Social factors involved in the reor- 
ganization of grades seven to nine, 
264-65. 

Social heredity, 95-100. 

Social ideals and social organization 
determining secondary education, 
341-44, 

Social institutions, changes in, affect- 
ing secondary education, 349-64, 
577-78. 584-85, 594-96, 606-08, 
612-13. 

Social integration and social differ- 
entiation, 95-100, 340-41, 347-49. 
Cf. Social principles. Integration, 
Integrating function. Social hered- 
ity. 

Social organization of secondary 
education, cf . Social ideals. Social 
evolution and educational adjust- 
ment. Social principles. Organiza- 
tion of social education, Curricu- 
I'oms, Extra-curriculum educa- 
tion, etc. 

Social principles determining sec- 
ondary education, 340-64. 

Social sciences, general treatment, 
534-69. Cf . History, Civics, Com- 
munity civics. Economics, Litera- 
ture, Problems of American De- 
mocracy. 

Social solidarity, cf . Social integratbn. 



740 



INDEX 



Sociology, 565-67. 

Spain, 205. 

Spanish, general treatment of for- 
eign language instruction, 447-77. 
Cf. also, 320, 413,414, 590-92. Cf. 
also Foreign languages. 

Specialization, 687-90, 698-704, 717- 
19. 

Special-type schools, 698-704. 

Spelling, individual differences in, 76. 

Spencer, H., on education for leisure, 
371-72; on the values of natural 
science study, 513-16. 

Stages of mental development, 39 ff. 

Standard deviation, 85. 

Starch, D., experiments on the re- 
sults of foreign language study, 
476. 

Starch, D., and Elliott, E. C, on va- 
riability in grading, 327. 

State aid, to academies, 176-78; to 
secondary education, 199-200. 

State systems of secondary educa- 
tion, 197-200. 

State universities and the secondary 
school, 307. 

Stenography, cf . Clerical education. 
Commercial education. Cf. also, 
180, 413. 

Strayer, G. D., on retardation, 124; 
on elimination, 128, 129, 130. 

Studies, cf . Program of studies, sub- 
ject titles. 

Studienanstalten, 216 fif. Cf. Ger- 
many, education in. 

Study of Nations, 569. 

Subject-matter, 51-52, 69-70. Cf. 
also Instruction, Program of stud- 
ies. 

Subject values, criteria of, 387-418. 

Subjects, cf . Program of studies, sub- 
ject titles. 

Suicide, 649. 

Supervised study, 686-87. 71&-15. 

Surveying, 180, 186, 413. 

Sweden, 205, 273. 

Swimming, 641. 

Switzerland, 205. 

Teachers, numbers, per school, per 
pupil, 120-21; in German higher 



r schools, 223-24; in French higher 
schools, 243-44; American and for- 
eign compared, 230-31; demand 
and supply, 119; in elementary 
and secondary schools, 280. 

Teacher-training courses in the high 
school, 308-10. 

Technical high schools, 573, 593. 

Terman, L. M., on physical traits, 11, 
14, 16-17, 19; on sex variability, 
113. 

Textile trades, 599-601. 

Thompson, F. V., on commercial oc- 
cupations, 583. 

Thompson, H. B., on sex differences, 
110. 

Thorndike, E. L., on the develop- 
ment of mental traits, 45-46, 48- 
49, 58-60; on racial traits, 92; on 
sex differences, 110-11, 113, 114- 
15; on elunmation, 128, 129, 130; 
on the standing of pupils on ad- 
mission examinations and in col- 
lege, 328; on the transfer of im- 
proved efficiency, 395, 396, 398, 
399, 403, 406, 408-09. 

Thought, relation of language to, 
423 ff., 462 ff. 

Transfer of improved efficiency, gen- 
eral treatment, 394-412; as related 
to foreign language study, 459-62; 
as related to mathematical study, 
494-500; as related to natural sci- 
ence study, 516-17, 522-25; as re- 
lated to social science study, 554- 
56; as related to practical and 
manual arts, 576-77; as related to 
stenography, 586-87; as related to 
agricultural education, 608. 

Trigonometry, general treatment of 
mathematical instruction, 481- 
503. Cf. also, 179, 180, 186, 320, 
413, 414. 

Tuberculosis, 649. 

Typewriting, cf. Clerical education. 
Commercial education. 

Typhoid fever, 649. 

Under-age pupils, cf . Acceleration. 
Units of high-school study, 316 ff. 
University, cf . College. 



INDEX 



741 



Urban communities, population, 357; 

secondary schools in, 120-21. 
Urbanization, effects on secondary 

education, 357-58. 

Values of subjects, general treatment 
of subject values and their criteria, 
387^18. Cf. subject titles, Eng- 
lish, Foreign languages. Mathe- 
matics, Natural sciences. Social 
sciences. Practical arts education. 
Vocational education, ^Esthetic 
arts. Physical education, etc. 

Van Denburg, J. K., on age distribu- 
tion of first-year high-school pupils, 
77; on the home conditions of high- 
school pupils, 101-04; on vocation- 
al choices of high-school pupils, 
104-06; on pupils' attitudes toward 
high-school education, 107; analy- 
sis of factors of elimination, 133- 
39, 141-^4. 

Variability, cf . Individual differences. 

Variables in the curriculimis, 674- 
75, 676-80, 686, 687, 689-90. 

Vermont, Latin grammar schools, 
168. 

Vernacular, cf. English. 

Virginia, academies, 174; Latin gram- 
mar schools, 162. 

Vital capacity, 15-16. 

Vocabulary, 425 ff. 

Vocational choices of high-school 
pupils, 104-06. Cf. Vocational 
education. Vocational guidance. 
Diagnostic education. Diagnostic 
function. 

Vocational education, general treat- 
ment, 572-615, 704-11; as affected 
by changes in the home and family 
life, 353-55; as affected by changes 
in industrial life, 361-64; as af- 
fected by changes in community 



life, 356-60; in Germany, 222. Cf. 
also, 121, 288-89. Cf. Clerical 
education. Commercial education. 
Agricultural education. Indus- 
trial education. Domestic educa- 
tion, Prevocational education. Eco- 
nomic-vocational aim of second- 
ary education. Vocational guid- 
ance. 

Vocational guidance, general treat- 
ment of educational guidance, 717- 
19. Cf. Educational guidance. 
Diagnostic education. Diagnostic 
function. Educational Diagnosis, 
Elimination, Individual differ- 
ences. Distribution and Classifica- 
tion of pupils. Vocational choices. 
Expectancy of stay, etc. 

Volksschule, 208 ff. Cf. Germany, 
education in. 

Vorschule, 208 ff . Cf . Germany, edu- 
cation in. 

Weight, growth of children in, 8-14. 
West, G. M., on growth and school 

progress, 12-13. 
Westminster, 248. 
Winchester, 248. 
Wisconsin, state aid in, 200. 
Woodworking trades, 591-601. 
Worcester (Massachusetts), children 

of foreign-born parentage, 99-100. 

Yocum, A. D., on mathematical 

study, 487. 
Young, J. W. A., on mathematical 

study, 487, 488, 489, 491, 494, 496. 

Zoology, general treatment of natu- 
ral sciences, 506-29. Cf. also, 180, 
188, 320, 413, 414. Cf. Natural 
Sciences, Biology. 

Zymotic diseases, 644. 



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